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UGHTS ON 

MGS PSYCHIC 



LTER WINSTON KENILWORTH 





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Book 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



THOUGHTS ON THINGS 
PSYCHIC 



THOUGHTS ON 

THINGS 

PSYCHIC 



BY 



Walter Winston Kenilworth 

AUTHOR OP 

"Psychic Control Through Self-Knowledge" 

& c . , & c . 




R. F. Fenno & Company 

NEW YORK 



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Copyright 1911, 
By K. F. FENNO & COMPANY 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 



©CU283788 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

The Theory of "a Lost Soul" i 

The Presence of the Ideal 6 

The Enrichment of Personality 9 

The Abyss of Spirit 24 

Darkness and Light 28 

Reflections 31 

The Harbor of Wisdom 41 

Thoughts on Things Psychic 42 

Moral Truths 67 

Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 78 

Meditations 114 

Emphasis in Religion 122 

"Strength" 144 

The Unity of Life 151 

The Consciousness of Reality 154 

Masks 155 

The Value in Life 157 

Our Relations to others 161 

Possibilities 166 

The Infinite 170 

The Rise of the Profounder Emotions 172 

The Spirit of Womanhood 176 

Night and Resurrection 184 

Vibration 186 

Death 191 

Truth 199 

"Morituri Te Salutant" 204 

Instinct — Intuition — Inspiration 207 

The Subject and the Object Mind 210 

Pregnant Truths 214 

The Appeal of Mysticism 218 

Karma Relations 220 

Some Thoughts on an Understanding of Life 223 



THOUGHTS ON THINGS 
PSYCHIC 



THE THEOEY OF "A LOST SOUL." 

Even in theological misconceptions there are 
grains of truth. The idea of hell and eternal 
punishment of "lost souls" obtains in most re- 
ligions. Though the idea is largely due to racial 
hypochondria, it contains elements of truth. 
Evil is followed by evil. Man has believed that 
as moral laxity was in direct violation to the re- 
vealed laws of an infinite personal god, the 
transgression must be followed by infinite, eter- 
nal punishment; such has been the dogma of 
theology. Philosophy, however, corrects the 
argument of theology. It has dismissed the 
conception of infinite torture for a finite act. 
It has modified the theory of a personal god. 

Hell is not a pit of darkness visible and of 
everlasting fire. The religious imagination has 
suffered psychical delusions. It has been work- 
ing overtime in the zealous effort of bringing 
truth into closer proximity to the mind through 
1 



The Theory of "a Lost Soul" 

symbolism. The fate of a "lost soul" is really 
worse than the imagination can picture. 

According to spiritual science, a "lost soul" 
is the perishing of personality, the most dread- 
ful event the spirit of man can experience. In 
considering the subject, two things must be 
borne in mind: first, the distinction between 
personality and individuality; secondly, the 
idea of eternal loss. Individuality is the thread 
running through all the changes of personality. 
Personality is a ray of the individual soul in- 
carnated in this sphere of life. The individual 
projects many of these rays, and each new pro- 
jection is a new life. The duty of personality 
manifests in the weaving of earth experience 
into the substance and truth of the reincarnat- 
ing soul. It must garner greater knowledge and 
greater depth of heart. It must control the ani- 
mal nature of passion and selfishness. This 
lower nature is ever at effort to pull the higher 
principles of man to its level. The complete 
pulling down manifests when the mind joins 
hands with the animal nature, and inverts the 
light of reason in the gratification of unbridled 
desire. Average expression ranges between low 
and high; complete spiritual undoing balances 
2 



The Theory of "a Lost Soul" 

towards lowest and perverted expression. The 
latter condition, however, is as rare as ultimate 
perfection, but the possibility of spiritual reali- 
zation is negatively suggestive of the terrible 
precipices of ignorance and weakness into 
which personality may fall. 

There is the ascetic who emphasizes the union 
with Self, the soul of the soul. Like the Christ, 
he gives up life that he may truly live. The 
ascetic is the ideal in the struggle for realiza- 
tion. There is the sensuous, decadent, and de- 
generate psychopathic study, whose delight in 
bestial desire is far beyond normal viciousness. 
This monster devises individual and shockingly 
retrogressive methods of self indulgence. Ke- 
ligion and spiritual effort are mythical to him. 
He turns his back upon the Spirit of love and 
compassion. Before him is the pit of unspeak- 
able foulness which purer nature cannot ap- 
proach without scorching itself. In gloom and 
darkness, the personality is blind to the light of 
truth and goodness. 

This state is the severance between the spirit- 
ual individual and its personal ray. The re- 
deeming light of Self vanishes and leaves the 
human being, a brute of retrogressive instincts, 
3 



The Theory of "a Lost Soul" 

dangerous and without human ruth. It leaves 
it a prey to its horror-loving and horror-inspir- 
ing fury. The living force of such an elemental 
thing — for human it is no longer — is a putres- 
cence such as is now and then found in the 
alleyways of life; a putrescence defiling the 
mental atmosphere with evil influences and 
doomed to final corruption. Such a disintegrat- 
ing personality is more destructive and primi- 
tive than the man-ape, a resemblance to which 
form they inhabit in the psychic plane. Indeed, 
the man-ape is on the upward path, whereas the 
man-brute is on the last step of the retrogressive 
path. 

In time, the pall of death covers the physical 
life of the man-brute. He finds himself in a 
new form, a thing of tremendous power. His 
greatest delight is in sending his influence to 
sensitives in low vibration on the earth plane. 
Goading them to depravities of indescribable 
character, he vampirizes on their sense enjoy- 
ment, or debauches himself in the psychopathic 
criminal state which often leads the sensitive 
to murder or self-destruction. Spiritual teach- 
ers claim that such a demon can reincarnate, 
that enough of the mental elements remain for 
4 



The Theory of "a Lost Soul" 

physical manifestation. Such a birth brings 
into expression the monster whose criminal in- 
sanities shock humanity. 

In terms of natural law, the force which this 
monster utilizes finally exhausts itself and, as 
it is gradually more and more spent, vitality 
recedes. That, too, is spent, and the lurid flame 
which spreads infection and riot is extin- 
guished. The elements which composed the 
original personality are dispersed in universal 
substance and force, to be kneaded and purified 
to the uses of developing life. 

Such depravity is not of sudden origin. It 
is the climax of lives of perversion, spiritual 
blindness and shocking iniquity. 



THE PKESENCE OF THE IDEAL. 

I wandered through the Valley of Life for a 
very long time. Everywhere did I look for the 
Ideal. But nowhere was it to be found. I 
thought its prodigious presence would be visi- 
ble throughout all time and space. But ever 
was I confronted by the Beal. And the Keal 
so sickened me with its coarseness that my soul 
staggered in horror. 

I said: "Where, then, is the Ideal to be 
found?" An answer came: "In the glorious 
paradise of thine own soul, there behold the 
Ideal." 

And amid the turbulence and the cry and 
the shadow did I seek. Long did I seek. And 
despaired in the seeking. For my ears were 
deafened by the shout of the rabble and my 
soul was scorched by the fever of many passions. 

At length a mighty eight-winged Seraphim 
approached and overwhelmed me with the in- 
cense of his presence. I forgot my sorrows and 
forgotten were the many days and nights of 
greatest trial when I had labored and labored in 
6 



The Presence of the Ideal 

vain. The angel spoke : "Child, why art thou 
troubled?" But the incense of his presence 
overwhelmed me. 

After a time of ecstatic beatitude I made 
answer and said : "I am troubled because things 
are so Real. Because the Real is so gruesome. 
Because it is without love and pity. Because it 
is as a densely woven veil which stops my 
vision of the Truly Real, The Ideal. To me the 
perfume of the incense of dew-covered violets 
and the fretting moan of the sea is far more 
than the greatest treasures. I am happy with 
the singing of a bird, and more to me is the 
beauty of a perfect rose than all the struggle of 
this hopeless order." 

I lay my head on a pillow of moss-covered 
stone. I gazed into the firmament and saw the 
splendor of myriad stars. At my feet mur- 
mured the interminable ocean. In the immedi- 
ate distance a nightingale sang her sweetest 
madrigal. And the beams of a full-shining 
moon filled my soul with hitherto unknown joy. 
Softly did I pass into deepest sleep. I dreamed 
a wonderful dream. And in the dream a Voice 
admonished: "See thou the wondrous Beauty 
of the Ideal in all things. Make thou no dis- 
7 



The Presence of the Ideal 

tinctions, for the Ideal is present in all times 
and in all places, and evermore, O Beloved, is It 
at peace whether in the lowest or the highest." 

"Thus must thou know. And thy knowledge 
shall make thee conscious of the oneness and 
identity of thyself and the Ideal." 

Then did I behold a vast, gorgeous temple of 
whitest marble streaked with bluest veins. Its 
spires were covered with gold. In that place 
ten thousand priests wearing richest raiments 
and holding in their hands strange books of 
seals and torches of yellow flame sang perpetual 
songs of praise. There did my soul kneel in 
adoration before the throne of the Ideal. Ever 
after did I tread the ways of Peace. 



THE EISTKICHMENT OF PEKSONALITY. 

Personality, though complex, is composite. 
It is the condensation of innumerable correlated 
sets of sensations and ideas, separately individ- 
ual and idiocentric. Personality is the sum- 
mary of an almost infinite accretion, rather than 
a thing of recent or spontaneous origin. Per- 
sonality is only an inheritance of an illimitable 
past. It is subject to change and modification, 
and therefore reality and the persistence for 
which reality calls cannot be accredited to it. 
Though constantly shifting it is true that per- 
sonality, or what we choose to call personality, 
has distinct psychological boundary marks 
which makes one person different from another. 
!No matter how apparently same may be the 
conditions under which two develop, no matter 
how approximate their sameness of thought and 
expression, there is ever a perfect psychical de- 
lineation which makes it impossible for one to 
merge into the personality of another. Per- 
sonality, however, does not comprise the truth 
of individuality. It is the depth of ourselves 
9 



The Enrichment of Personality 

which is the constituent of Being. The changes 
which personality experiences are only the 
waves on the surface. They come and they go 
and all have their respective value in develop- 
ment. They all serve to perfect that which, for 
lack of better expression, we call Self. Self 
is the abiding individuality which is the thread 
holding together the jewels of personal experi- 
ence. Whatever comes to us is either a positive 
or negative factor in the education and unfold- 
ment of Self. The personality is the form and 
external expression of the soul of individuality. 
The sum-total of personality is the aggregate of 
character and experience which it represents. 
This aggregate represents the degree of indi- 
vidual evolution. Thus the life of an aged per- 
son is the composite of all the experiences un- 
dergone throughout his earthly career. Eot one 
state of consciousness alone represents the man, 
nor any definite number. All states have had 
their moulding influence on the individuality. 
True, there is always one set of thoughts in 
prominence. It may be the musical, the artis- 
tic, the scientific, the inventive, the commercial, 
the religious, the philosophical and so on. Each 
person may be classified under a respective 
10 



The Enrichment of Personality 

heading, be it the mechanical, the practical or 
the impractical. There is likewise always a set 
of pre-eminent emotions, be they highly moral, 
religious or contraverse. Our continued ad- 
justment to circumstances and events and our 
relation to others determines the representative 
self we may express at any given time. But 
this self is never the same. To-day a person 
may follow this calling and to-morrow that. 
To-day he may be under different circumstances 
and influence than some time since. £Tow he 
may be swayed by love and then by hate. All 
the opposites of emotion and thought have their 
influence in the ratio of the personal scale in 
evolution. 

The radical features of personality must be 
balanced in the examination of soul by each 
person. He must draw lines of demarcation be- 
tween advantageous and disadvantageous ten- 
dencies, efficient and deficient characteristics of 
mind and heart. For the goal of each person 
should be the perfection of the best within, the 
realization of the noblest qualities with which 
he may find himself possessed. Earth life is 
the opportunity for the education of souls. We 
are given so many talents of soul and we must 
11 



The Enrichment of Personality 

enrich these talents by using them to the best 
advantage. It is life alone which is serious. 
The accidents to life are ephemeral. Their oc- 
currence has value only in the transforming 
processes of mind and heart. But the motion of 
personality, its ebb and its flow, must be con- 
stant. We should never falter if we fail, and 
never stop at success. For in the diminution of 
experience and its changing value is stagnation. 
We must never count losses, for the thought of 
loss leads to depression, and life calls for all the 
resource we can command. Thus we must 
realize that time is fleeting and opportunity 
goes with as much celerity as it comes. We 
must take time by the forelock and be awake to 
opportunity. There is no greater regret than 
that of wasted chance. Our greatest duty is to 
ourselves, for in helping ourselves we help 
others. We enlarge our possibilities for service 
and our area for expression. We should never 
discount experience for material advantage. 
For it is infinitely better to be than to have and 
infinitely better to give than to receive. For 
in giving we are always on the credit score of 
life. And this credit is paid to us in the value 
of richer opportunities and the wealth of great- 
12 



The Enrichment of Personality 

er faculties. We use our personal experience 
and from its fruits we store the profits in the 
treasure-house of our individuality and soul 
where thieves cannot enter, unless we prove 
thieves to the cause of our personal develop- 
ment. 

Piety, or the religious feeling, has little to 
do in the coloring and shading of the master- 
piece of soul we are painting on the canvas of 
life. The colors are the fruits of experience 
which the individual painter employs in toning 
imperfections and pronouncing advantages. 
Our experiences are the building factors which 
we are preparing for the construction of the 
personality we shall express in a future life. 
Our responsibility to life is appalling. Busied 
with endless material cares we have little time 
for deep reflection on the great issues of life 
and death which the Law employs for our bless- 
ing or curse. We should give some time each 
day to the study and meditation of life and 
what it means and examine our relation to it. 
We must give weighty consideration to our 
present status of development and measure the 
scale of the advantages we have taken in per- 
fecting soul-inherited virtues of soul and mind. 
13 



The Enrichment of Personality 

We must also have the courage to blame our- 
selves for the mistakes we have made. But 
there must be no weeping over the dead past. 
Let our mistakes be the stepping-stones by which 
we rise to higher things. Evil and good have 
equal influence in the evolution of the soul. The 
new road must be discovered and that means 
aberrations, struggle and privation. But the 
mistakes and the fate of earlier pioneers is the 
wisdom and caution of others. In this manner 
progress is fashioned and in due time the new 
road leads to the discovery of new territory with 
its richness of soil, its advantages of climate 
and its possibilities for new experience and 
gain. This outlook is to be cherished with re- 
gard to our failings. Eailure is often the mal- 
administration of effort. The intention may 
be right, but the working knowledge may be de- 
fective. This working knowledge can only be 
had in repeated experience, but the goal is worth 
the effort. In many cases failure is attribut- 
able to wilfulness of desire. Life frequently 
gives the fulfilment of desire and in the end 
pain is the heritage. Experience is the great 
teacher. The soul must undergo pain time and 
time again as the result of inverted desire. It 
14 



The Enrichment of Personality 

must become conscious of the inadvisability of 
wrong, not because wrong is theoretically wrong 
or dogmatically condemned, but because evil is 
its own curse, even as virtue is its own reward. 
Evil has its uses, but they are negative. The 
pain which is entailed is hard to bear, but each 
punishment is an indirect incentive to do better. 
We never reason ourselves into the right. Our 
knowledge of what is morally proper is a con- 
scious knowledge with potent influence for right 
conduct. 

Potential within us are many opportunities. 
Behind this personality is the omnipotence of 
Spirit. We are surrounded by an ocean of 
strength. It is not the fault of opportunity if 
we lose in the battle of life. The means are 
close at hand. We need only put ourself into 
relation with Spirit and we are blessed with all 
the advantages necessary to strengthen our char- 
acters and perfect our advantages. The enrich- 
ment of personality reaches its climax when we 
understand that, of ourselves, we can do little, 
but that infinite strength disposes our needs ac- 
cording to its wisdom and love. We rely not 
on this immediate self of change, but on that 
immortal and divine Self which never fails us 
15 



The Enrichment of Personality 

if we are true to the Faith and firm in obedi- 
ence to the Law. This Faith is the essence of 
the soul. It is eternally infused. Its cultiva- 
tion leads to higher perception and ultimately 
it identifies itself with the highest knowledge. 
The attractiveness of personality rests in the 
perfection of the talents of personality. In the 
enrichment of these is embodied the develop- 
ment, the increase of personal charm and qual- 
ity. The highest vocation we have is self per- 
fection. The various situations of commercial, 
religious, artistic or professional life into which 
we may drift are only avenues or advantages 
through which we may more fitly express our- 
selves. The main necessity lies in our attitude. 
That must ever be correct, though we may find 
ourselves unfavorably placed and surrounded 
with inconveniences. If we are spiritually re- 
lated, each experience has its developing ten- 
dency. There is a usefulness in sickness, pov- 
erty and misery, if it only strengthens the quali- 
ties of patience, perseverance, humility, resig- 
nation, if it only broadens our sympathy and 
pity, if it only educates our feelings into more 
exquisite proportions by making us sensitive to 
pain. This is the permissible spirit of asceti- 
16 



The Enrichment of Personality 

cism, resignation to the unavoidable. It is true 
that need, sorrow and affliction are the solid 
rocks upon which the structure of character is 
erected. Greatness of conduct and force of will 
cannot express themselves in the lap of ease. It 
takes iron-hound opposition to confront the soul 
and bring out the spark of strength, knowledge 
and the ability to cope with disadvantage. The 
earnest aspirant for self perfection welcomes 
pain and sorrow. For it is then that the end of 
life is well kept in mind. The soul is apt to 
forget its mission if comfortably adjusted to the 
wants of material life. It is the denial of com- 
fort which makes men rely on the deeper reali- 
ties of truth and spirit. It makes one resigned 
to the provident spirit of the Law which knows 
best and never deserts us. We are never tested 
beyond our strength. We can meet difficulties 
triumphantly if we remember that within our 
nature resides the principle of victory and 
achievement. It is our fortune to come in con- 
tact with opposition, but it is also our destiny 
to overcome whatever may befall us, for without 
this overcoming we remain stationary. 

A great deal of moral truth is comprised in 
the pursuit of development. The end of evolu- 
17 



The Enrichment of Personality 

tion is moral, which means that before perfec- 
tion of soul can be, the instinctive must be sub- 
jugated to the needs of spiritual growth. Bela- 
tively less importance must be given the outer 
arrangement than we now give. Our views of 
the material life must be spiritualized. We 
must see the material in its relation to the spirit- 
ual. In this way all the circumstances of the 
external are rendered beautiful and useful. 
They are not regarded either with exaggerated 
idealism or realism, but proportionately related 
to the wholesomeness of life. The disadvantage 
of present idealistic systems is that they are too 
extreme in their conclusions. They do not fully 
answer the many-sided view of life. They deny 
phenomenal reality. This cannot be done, for 
we live in this world and while we are here we 
must employ the realities we find in the service 
of our development. Attaching sole importance 
to the idealistic conception of the universe 
makes the mind incapable of truly appreciating 
the outward arrangement and its practical rela- 
tion to truth. The average mind is too depend- 
ent on external symbols to worship ideals be- 
cause of their own perfection. We cannot ap- 
preciate the glory of the Spirit save as we study 
18 



The Enrichment of Personality 

the marvellous beauty and order of the uni- 
verse. We can understand the goodness and all- 
loving tenderness of Spirit only as we observe 
the rewards and spiritual unfoldment it bestows 
for loyalty to its mandates. 

Enrichment of personality can alone come 
when our conception of the things we percieve 
about us is practical. The sages of spiritual 
knowledge alwa} T s seek the practical side of the 
spiritual life. They do not deny the facts which 
we sensibly realize. They ask us to see them as 
presentations of the inner ideal. When the 
ideal is perceived then is there no further 
wrangling over appearances. The enrichment 
of personality is brought about by the change 
of the ideal of desires. It is necessary to grow 
apart from unworthy desires and desire those 
things which will make us richer in experience. 
The main business in life should be the accumu- 
lation of knowledge, not the knowledge of book- 
learning, but conscious knowledge, the result of 
experience. If one does not travel, his knowl- 
edge of the world is limited. True, he may 
have studied geography, but that would give 
him only a theoretical knowledge. Practical 
knowledge is irrefutable knowledge. The con- 
19 



The Enrichment of Personality 

vincingness of a fact lies in its established 
proof. So it is necessary to experience, for ex- 
perience is the really practical proof needed in 
the discriminations of life. Desires we must 
have. Desire is the spirit of progress. Dissat- 
isfaction with existing circumstances spurs the 
soul to the realization of better things. The 
inanimate does not desire, neither does it evolve. 
There are times when we unknowingly desire 
evil conditions by believing that certain circum- 
stances will be to our advantage, when they act 
otherwise. But even these desires are good. 
They teach us very good lessons. They may be 
bitter, but they broaden our knowledge of what 
is really desirable, good and useful. There is 
utility in desire and its satisfaction, and there 
is also utility in the spirit and practice of de- 
nial. Neither desire nor denial should be over- 
emphasized. Fanaticism is as condemnable as 
excess. The even balance must be struggle. Too 
little or too much food, sleep, exercise and en- 
joyment is not good for the mind or body. Har- 
monious adaption to the laws of nature and of 
the soul is the demand which we must obey. If 
we fail to strike the happy medium, some fac- 
ulty is overemphasized to the detriment of an- 
20 



THe Enrichment of Personality 

other. The body cannot be negelected for the 
sake of the mind, for it will die. Too much 
study and too little recreation and exercise has 
been the death of many an enthusiastic scholar. 
The body cannot be too much indulged else the 
mind will suffer. It will become stupid, in- 
active and coarse. And both bodily and mental 
disarrangement have their retrogressive effects 
upon the full expression of the soul. The per- 
fect person realizes that he has duties to every 
phase of his nature. Even the soul must not 
aspire to the point where asceticism will injure 
the body. One of the greatest saints of the 
Eoman Catholic Church well understood this. 
Saint Bonaventure writes, that as Saint Francis 
of Assisi lay on his death-bed suffering from dis- 
ease induced by his extreme asceticism, he gazed 
on his emaciated body and said: "I have sin- 
ned against my brother, the ass," for so the 
great ascetic called his mortal frame. 

The enrichment of personality constantly re- 
moulds the psychological make-up. It contin- 
ually expands the boundaries of feeling and 
thought and thus inhibits the restraint of ex- 
pression which ignorance involves. Ignorance 
is the lack of the perception of the infinitely 
21 



THe Enrichment of Personality 

possible which surrounds on all sides. The un- 
regenerate view this illimitable field for expan- 
sion of temperament and knowledge as a vast 
sea of night. Thus they shrink into the narrow- 
ness of their custom-made views and phases of 
conduct. The enlightened see the illimitable 
expanse as the field of spiritual promise, the 
land of indefinite development and endless op- 
portunity. They gladly leap the boundaries of 
antiquated belief. It is sometimes dangerous to 
make this leap. As in the case of Socrates and 
Giordano Bruno it meant the martyrdom of the 
body. But the mind lives triumphantly on and 
the "blood of the martyrs is the seed for new" 
believers in the tenets for which the free of 
thought die. The main purpose in the develop- 
ment of the mind or soul is the rehabilitation 
and new presentation of the old and the intro- 
duction of the new. ]S3"ew ideas, new views, 
novel phases of soul expression enable the soul 
to soar into the very empyrean of progress. 
Rapid progress follows reformation of thought. 
!New channels are made for the larger expres- 
sion of emotion. The conduits for the inspira- 
tion so necessary for the growth of the imagina- 
tive and intellectual faculties are pressed into 
22 



The Enrichment of Personality 

fullest service. Our entire life is a gradual 
reformation from the previous status of our 
mental and spiritual outlook. New experiences 
are to be welcomed. Change is the magic wand 
by which the form of Self is changed from dark 
to lighter shades. 

In the permutations of life it is well to bear 
ever in mind that the manifesting principle of 
possibilities is the desire to be. Poverty is 
preferable to wealth when the latter induces a 
shirking of opportunity. Ease and effort are 
incompatible. A continuous ideal and continu- 
ous enthusiasm in attempting to realize it must 
be established in every soul. All have ideals, 
but many need education, reconstruction and 
widened channels of expression. The enrich- 
ment of personality is the greatest urge for the 
realization of the best within. It conjures op- 
portunities. The main fact which should in- 
terest the individual is the reaching of higher 
planes of thought, feeling and expression. 
When that is firmly implanted, nature provides 
the means and the modes, even as in terrestrial 
evolution she introduces changes in the organ- 
ism of creatures in accordance with their fitness 
for the new and the more complex. 
23 



THE ABYSS OF SPIEIT. 

Spirit stands forth alone. Spirit can only 
be seen by Spirit ; Self perceived only by Self ; 
Self known only by Self. The eternal Thinker 
is conscious alone of His unconditioned exist- 
ence. The finite manifestations of Self possess 
separate knowledge, the knowledge of plurality, 
of manifoldness, and pass through cycles and 
cycles of existence. Before separate existence 
can realize unconditioned existence, it must first 
have relinquished separate existence, selfishness 
and the ignorance born of these. It must con- 
stantly assert the unreality of manifoldness, of 
duality and plurality and of the myriad super- 
stitious death and birth involve. It must go 
into the veriest depth of depths of the soul and 
exclaim to the Infinite Self: "Thou art I, and 
I am Thou." 

The abyss of the soul is forever crying out to 
the abyss of Spirit asking: "Which is the 
deeper ?" But neither is deeper. Both are in- 
comprehensibly and immeasurably deepest. 
There is that mighty wisdom by which all rela- 
24 



The Abyss of Spirit 

tive wisdom is encompassed ; there is that ocean 
of emotion in which personal regard is lost in 
the contemplation and vision of all-embracing 
love, beauty and adorableness. To perceive that 
is to perceive the end and all of life. To per- 
ceive this is to perceive those realities of which 
it is said, "No eye hath seen, nor ear hath 
heard." The moral systems are only high reflex 
methods calling forth the highest activity of 
soul. But the realization of Spirit reaches far 
beyond, through all morality and beyond into 
that highest truth when the individual is moral, 
not through struggle, but because it has become 
natural. So long as there is strife between the 
lower and the higher, so long is the soul swayed 
by illusion. But when the person has passed be- 
yond the silence of his innermost nature into 
the very Spirit of soul, morality is the essence 
of his expression. 

Wherever such a Son of Man treads he radi- 
ates nothing but good, speaks nothing but good. 
He has natural perception of spiritual truth. 
Universal love and divine compassion form his 
attitude toward all life. The desire and emo- 
tions of such an excelled being are directed to 
the eternally highest. His emotions are cen- 
25 



The Abyss of Spirit 

tered in the Infinite. His desires manifest in 
the supreme apostleship to raise the veil of illu- 
sion and scatter the mists of ignorance. He is 
the priest of the Most High. His yearning is to 
die to the finite that he may become one with 
endless, eternal, unconditioned, omnipresent ex- 
istence. Of what pettiness is this separate ex- 
istence which hinders us from perceiving the 
Infinite and Perfect One ! 

He, the Saint, reflecting on the nothingness 
of form, the emptiness of name, on the cyclings 
of the Law, which exalts the beggar into royal 
splendor and humbles the king to the beggar's 
condition, he, the King, realizing these 
thoughts, gave up his kingdom. After meditat- 
ing for many years in the silence of the forest, 
he stretched his arms to the Sun saying: "Oh 
passing are all things. This body, this mind, 
this life, this king-state, this god-state, this state 
of misery, this state of joy intense, this state of 
most beautiful love, this state of fear, this state 
of prosperity, this state of want, all, O Self, are 
passing! Tell me that which is beyond the 
passing." 

Self, assuming the form of a sage, spoke to 
the King: "In that thou hast found all things 
26 



The Abyss of Spirit 

to be passing, know, O King, that the Highest 
can be perceived by the Highest. And the 
Highest, That are thou." 

The King meditating on this teaching at- 
tained to the realization which shatters the fet- 
ters of the soul. He attained to Self. Unity is 
the synthesis of life. That synthesis is the acme 
of thought and feeling. It is the state of Abso- 
lute Existence, Absolute Knowledge and Bliss 
Absolute. "It is described as 'No, No.' It 
cannot be discerned, for It is the indiscernible." 
Mind moves within the limitations of sense ex- 
perience. There is a wall beyond which reason 
cannot go. Keligion commences with faith. 
True faith is the horizon. Eeason crowds the 
scene with numberless phenomena, but the back- 
ground is faith. Knowledge is the approach. 
Faith is the spiritual temple wherein the praises 
of the Infinite are voiced. Faith leads to vision 
as knowledge leads to understanding. 

The Self within disentangles the veil which 
covers our spiritual eyes. When that veil is re- 
moved we shall see Self as Self, as all in all. 
The abyss of the soul merges into the abyss of 
God. 



27 



DARKNESS AND LIGHT. 

Long is the way of darkness, and dense the 
night of ignorance. 

Steep is the upward ascent from the primeval. 
And the light which illumines the early path is 
feeble. 

The way is paved with the forms of body and 
the forms of mind. Thought is as gross as mat- 
ter, for all is grossness in comparison with the 
rareness, the superfineness, the aesthetic, the 
ideal beauty of spirit. All that is gross belongs 
to the order of illusion. 

Illusion is the mother of night, and night, the 
habitation of the ignorant. Most terrible of the 
terrible is this illusion, for it is the mother of 
all terror, of the terrors of birth and of the ter- 
rors of death, of the things which seem hopeful 
and of the things which seem hopeless. 

The veil of indiscrimination blinds the 
vision; the Light is not seen, nor is Its kindly 
influence felt. 

The sacrificial knife is raised and the victim 
sacrificed on the Altar of Darkness to the Pri- 
28 



Darkness and Light 

meval Mother, the Mother of Eecurrent Ter- 
rors. There is much wailing and mnch woe for 
all the things that are false, because of their ap- 
pearance to the Truth. The Truth alone is 
self -established, for the Truth does not change ; 
for the Truth leads. 

The dawn of deliverance is the signal for re- 
demption. The Voice of Truth is the Voice of 
the Silence. The awakening of the moral life 
is the morning of deliverance. Its keeping 
brings the seeker into the unclouded day of 
Spirit. 

There is more truth than is known, and there 
is more truth in the truth which is already 
known. The quest of Truth is the business of 
the soul and, if the soul rightly relates itself, it 
can expect the fullest revelation of truth. Noth- 
ing new can be said. The Truth is the same, 
and has ever been the same, only its aspects are 
new, only its definitions suited to time and 
necessity. The everlasting Truth is ever the 
saving truth. The Truth is essentially one, es- 
sentially ever-present, essentially embodying the 
exalted principle of omniscience. He who has 
seen the Truth becomes possessed of the Truth, 
becomes one with the Truth. In this sense, 
29 



Darkness and Light 

Truth is separate in meaning from its ordinary 
significance, for it is the Spirit of Truth ahove 
all formulas, the Spirit which interprets truth, 
and guides its dispensations. 

"When it is night to all being, then is the 
man of self-control awake; when all beings are 
awake, then is the night of the man of knowl- 
edge." The man of self-control, of moral sta- 
mina is ever on the qui vive against those very 
things with which men are most occupied. For 
those things which seem so pleasing to most 
men, he is least concerned. 

His day is their night; their night, his day. 
Their knowledge is his ignorance; their ignor- 
ance, his knowledge. 

Out of the night of spiritual darkness duality 
comes forth ; out of the day of spiritual knowl- 
edge come unity and the consciousness of unity. 

"In this world of manifoldness, he who sees 
That One running through all ; in this world of 
death, he who perceives That One Infinite Life ; 
in this world of insentience and ignorance, he 
who sees That One Light and Knowledge, unto 
him comes eternal peace, unto none else, unto 
none else." 



30 



REFLECTIONS. 

Our entire life includes more or less the 
elements of suggestion. Imitation is the foun- 
dation of the instinctive, mental and social life. 
The greater number of persons are influenced 
by the thought and suggestions of leaders, at 
earnest work to further the development of the 
community in which they find themselves. 

Individuality is the stage of development 
when the individual mind bursts the bonds of 
convention and strikes out into new areas of 
mental, moral or social expression. All great 
moralists are great individualists; all persons 
who have climbed the ladder of fame in the pur- 
suit of literature, art, religion, politics or states- 
manship, are individualists. 

Originality in all things is the expression of 
the true individual. That originality, however, 
must conform to the higher understanding of 
morality, else it is dangerous and pernicious, 
and should at once be suppressed. All great 
criminals are original, but they are also danger- 
ous and harmful to the general welfare. We 
31 



Reflections 

must distinguish in the definition of "dangerous 
and harmful." Evolved ideas practically car- 
ried out by some genius may be dangerous and 
harmful to great numbers, but in this instance 
the danger is to the under-educated and to the 
slow in progress. Such danger and harm is of 
great benefit ; it strikes the point of stagnation ; 
it gives the evolutionary impulse. Evolution is 
ever heralded by the sigh of the birth of the 
new. Such dar.ger and harm resemble those 
terrestrial upheavals which purify while they 
destroy. Surviving forces cannot be destroyed. 
Nothing can tear down the vital evolutionary 
element. 

The things which meet with destruction have 
served their allotted occasion. There is, how- 
ever, that serious danger following in the wake 
of criminal originality, which menaces good in- 
fluence that form the stable elements in the 
preservation of law, order and social harmony. 
These conditions have nothing of value in place 
of that which they destroy. They tear down the 
beautiful and uplifting. They are vandalistic 
to the advance of mental and spiritual control. 
Therefore, they must be ousted and their influ- 
ence counter-balanced. 

32 



Eeflections 

Every person has the right to express his in- 
dividuality. Experience will teach him, how- 
ever, the advisability of developing certain 
traits and suppressing others. The brute in- 
stincts in man cry for satisfaction. The pas- 
sions of social life are only modifications of the 
instinct to satisfy desire, irrespective of the re- 
sult such satisfaction bears. The animal and 
savage instinct of getting creature comforts ex- 
presses itself in the might of physical force with 
brute strength and fang and nail. Our modern 
system of commerce has evolved from this in- 
stinct. The desire to secure as much money as 
possible, the desire to acquire as much as possi- 
ble the luxuries and means of sensuous gratifi- 
cation which modern life affords, has accentu- 
ated the individuality of many and compelled 
the average person to abnormal individual ex- 
pression. The fundamental facts of civiliza- 
tion, the growing complexity of the industrial 
system, the universal increase in the privileges 
of social democracy, all lend stimuli to the 
specialization of individuality. 

The question arises, if this turn of individual 
expression is fortunate and truly developed. 
The majority of sociologists think not. The in- 
33 



Reflections 

dependence which manifests in the possession of 
wealth stirs the average person to secure every 
financial support. The desire for social ad- 
vancement adds to the flame. This state of so- 
ciety renders the relations of men harsh and 
brutal. The finer sentiments are lost sight of 
in the turmoil and rush for the dollar. The 
artist, the litterateur, the poet or the philoso- 
pher, find appreciation only as they are success- 
ful, the success frequently depending on fortui- 
tous circumstances. Success, which comes 
through persistence of effort, through power of 
will, through unflinching optimism, is extreme- 
ly rare. It is opportunity which brings the 
struggling genius from obscurity into public ap- 
preciation and success. This opportunity de- 
pends on the most unexpected events. Possibly, 
the meeting of a new acquaintance, a patron of 
the arts, letters or the sciences, or some equally 
unlooked-for occasion turns the tide. 

Through the exaggerated importance accord- 
ed the practical, the finer things of life are di- 
rectly lost sight of. The collective expression 
of society at the present is abnormal from a 
view point of mental and emotional develop- 
ment. The theatres are at the mercy of finan- 
34 



Reflections 

ciers who present the public with "what will 
pay." Accordingly the vaudeville and the 
comic opera are the "money features" of the 
theatre. True, there is a noted revival ex- 
pressed in the so-called "problem-plays." These, 
at least, educate the public to higher concepts of 
social duty and responsibility. But the master- 
pieces of drama are not in date. Shakespeare 
is no longer the vogue. 

The cause for this variation of public appre- 
ciation from superior to mediocre presentations 
is psychological. The individual, burdened 
with the responsibilities and pressure of com- 
mercial life, expends so much mental and nerv- 
ous energy in one direction that at the end of 
the day he has an insufficient amount of energy 
left to truly appreciate the aesthetic culture of 
life. An opera or a classic drama requires 
much mental energy, if the person wishes to 
gain the best results from his attendance. The 
expression of developed emotions likewise de- 
mands the best of physical and mental energy, 
but the person engrossed in commercial life has 
none to give. The theatres do not appear to the 
instinct of knowledge ; they appeal to pleasure. 
35 



Reflections 

The individual represents the general social 
trend. 

The influence of commercial life has deplora- 
ble effects on the greater number. The central 
idea of their lives is the acquisition of money 
and the privileges it gives. This idea is sophis- 
tical and develops a false individuality. The 
individual is governed by a purpose he has never 
scrutinized. Question the individual concern- 
ing the truly great things in life, and he cites 
ideals from mental education to the spiritual 
life. Within the heart, however, he realizes 
that his practical purpose in life is the govern- 
ing and effective purpose. 

The trouble is that we have not the moral 
stamina to follow convictions. One realizes 
what is right, but has not the courage to follow 
principle. Then the moral laziness of many 
persons is aggravated by the fear that the fol- 
lowing of individual opinion may meet with 
ridicule or criticism. This condition is exem- 
plified in the lives of young men. They follow 
a questionable course of conduct solely because 
they fear that if they do not do so they will 
incur the contempt of their associates. They do 
not possess the moral originality and stamina 



^Reflections 

to face every opposition with courageous heart. 

The expression of individuality demands the 
manifestation of the best qualities of mind and 
heart. Individualists are creators of their des- 
tiny, for they remain uninfluenced by the opin- 
ion of others. In this age of practicality he 
who thoroughly understands the deeper values 
of life, unassociated with the pursuit of money 
or the things which represent it, develops his 
possibilities to the utmost. He appreciates his 
relations to the world of commerce; but he has 
other gods than Mammon. His greatest atten- 
tion is directed to his personal evolution. He 
uses every occasion for personal enlightenment. 
In this sense he is useful to his fellowmen, to 
himself. 

The average individual is collective in origin 
and expression. The developed individual is 
original in thought, in emotion, in his attitudes 
toward his environment, and in his relations to 
life as such. The average individual rests con- 
tented with social conditions, provided his de- 
sire for commercial gain and his business are 
not interfered with. His philosophy rests on 
the "bread and butter principle." The devel- 
oped individual is governed by an advanced 
37 



Reflections 

idea or an emotion, or by both. The amenities 
of life are of relative importance. His purpose 
is related to higher things. He wishes to ex- 
press something within him, while the average 
individual expresses himself in relation to ex- 
ternal circumstances. The average individual 
is purely reflex. All his ideas are borrowed; 
the quality of his emotion is lessened through 
their affiliation with the commercial idea by 
which they are impelled. The average indi- 
vidual is stationary in his residence, and is 
thus denied that broad experience of the world 
possessed by the developed individual, who re- 
mains in an environment only so long as it is 
necessary for his greater experience. 

Mindful of the passing nature of life the true 
philosopher seeks the development of those fac- 
tors which accredit life with true meaning and 
purpose and discredits the pursuit and indulg- 
ence of desire. Though the appeal of the senses 
is strong he so governs them that the emotions 
become associated with advanced ideas and 
ideals. The feelings of men are like fire which 
is harmful under some conditions and helpful 
under others. The feelings may unite with in- 
stinctive desire for sensuous gratification, or 
38 



Benections 

they can be controlled and serve in the expres- 
sion of spiritual ideas. The value in life and 
the meaning in effort is the education of the 
mind and heart. The mind must be nourished 
by elevated ideals. It must seek joy in the pur- 
suit of things developing character. Many per- 
sons follow sensuous pleasure, thinking that this 
will satisfy their thirst for happiness. They 
find that this sort of pleasure only weakens the 
senses, dulls the mind, and distracts the atten- 
tion from worthier purposes and personal du- 
ties. There is great joy in the knowledge of 
having performed one's duty. There is great 
joy in the service to one's fellow-man. There 
is great joy in such mental or emotional devel- 
opment which assures the individual that each 
effort raises him higher in the scale of being. 
Compared with these joys, the pleasure derived 
from passion is misery. The astronomer's dog 
has pleasure in eating his bone; the happiness 
of the astronomer is the knowledge he reaps 
and the discovery he makes in his intellectual 
work. Both the dog and the learned man have 
pleasure, the difference existing only in the de- 
gree. But there are millions of centuries of 
evolution in the breadth of that degree. 



Reflections 

The mind must not permit itself to be de- 
ceived by sophism. Death and sorrow, misery 
and pain, instruct the soul concerning what 
truly affords pleasure. In the moments of trial 
when fortune is swept aside, when death draws 
near, or when danger threatens, the sophism 
which deceives the mind into believing that the 
end and all of happiness centers in material 
advantage, is destroyed. Experience presents 
new ideals. The man of spiritual knowledge 
discriminates between his ideals of happiness, 
and thus arrives at the perception of true and 
substantial ideals. Thus his individuality is 
strengthened and its expression assists and 
elevates. 



THE HARBOR OF WISDOM. 

The argosies which sail on the sea of infinite 
existence in the quest of infinite knowledge are 
many, but noblest of all are those which bear 
the crew who have sought the depth of depths, 
and have found the path which leads out of the 
shoreless sea into the haven of infinite peace. 
Out of the darkness, out of the night, and out 
of the storm and havoc of material distress, out 
of the night of ignorance and beyond the rocks 
of rebirth, shines the golden sun of truth. Open 
thy radiance, O Sun ! Shine forth, for thy light 
is not different from that light which shines in 
the soul ! Thy light and our light is one. The 
ship of safety which carries the mind into the 
harbor of wisdom is the law. 

The sublime port is the redemption of the 
individual; it is the sinking of the cargo of 
selfishness, a burdensome freight, retarding the 
ship of the soul. 



41 



THOUGHTS ON THINGS PSYCHIC. 

Within the innermost sanctuary of self is the 
soul with its wide latitude of personality, per- 
sonalities which are yet to be. 

The garments of self are often confused with 
its principles. The mind is only a covering 
which the eternal thinker wears and which 
brings him into vibration with inferior planes, 
for there is a vast distinction between the plane 
on which the soul acts and the planes on which 
the lower principles, such as the desire and sen- 
suous elements, manifest. An entire series of 
form and condition is necessary before the voice 
of the eternal thinker, and the indwelling spirit 
can be heard on the physical plane. 

The mind is uppermost in activity and con- 
trol of all the principles working beneath it. It 
is the ruler over the material. This is the 
esoteric significance attached to the Biblical 
teaching that man has dominion over all things. 
The highest principle, by reason of its superior 
essence and qualities, determines the circum- 
stances, aspect and relation of everything with 
42 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

which it comes into contact. The vibrations of 
mental force are complete in development and 
most powerful. Men admire and stand in awe 
at the grandeur of tropical storms; they stand 
in reverence before the stupendous majesty of 
Niagara Falls, but to him who perceives the 
nature and transcendency of mental forces, all 
this physical power shrinks into nothingness. 
The discovery of these mental forces reveals an 
extension of human faculty, such as are sug- 
gested in psychology, hypnosis and the science 
of chemistry, which is gradually becoming meta- 
physical, so psycho-spiritual are its aspects and 
recent discoveries. 

Great is the power of the material, but ines- 
timably greater are the power and expression of 
the mental. Men admire this concrete, physical 
universe, but there are spheres composed of in- 
finitely more attenuated substance. There are 
infinitely more modes for the expression of con- 
sciousness other than the terrestrial. 

"We look at the universe with a lens of but 
five senses, and from their experiences our geo- 
centric and anthropomorphic conceptions of 
philosophy originate. Just as men were accus- 
tomed to regard the earth as the primary sphere 
43 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

in the cosmos, and the other suns and planets 
only as related to it, so their philosophies are 
tinctured with the conception of the transcend- 
ental importance of man and of the final goal 
of evolution as expressed in human intelligence 
and its continuous development. Psychologists, 
such as James, however, point to the probability 
of other phases of existence much higher than 
human life. Spiritual science asserts that the 
probability in which scientists concur is a spirit- 
ual fact, and that psychology is approaching the 
border-land of other worlds. These thoughts, 
gradually related to common knowledge, must 
profoundly change the philosophy of life. 

The senses are not stationary in their latitude 
of experience, but range beyond and beneath 
their normal level. They are modified in some 
persons and greatly extended in others, so that 
where the former receive but a comparatively 
limited number of sense impressions and where 
the distinctness and intensity of sensations are 
greatly modified, the latter possess such exten- 
sion of sense susceptibilities as almost to live 
in another sphere. This extension is subject to 
evolution and environment, but it may be ac- 
celerated by certain dietetic and breathing exer- 
44 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

cises. Perception is the manifestation of con- 
sciousness; to manifest it requires various in- 
struments and different conditions and environ- 
ments, and these instruments, conditions and 
environments are indefinite in variation, com- 
plexity and number. It is ridiculous to imagine 
that consciousness can only manifest itself 
through the medium of a physical brain, and 
that states of conciousness are inseparably as- 
sociated with molecular motions in the brain. 

The senses are conditioned within their own 
activity. Many animals possess far better de- 
veloped sense susceptibilities than human be- 
ings. Strange to say, of human beings, savages 
and semi-savages have much keener vision, 
power of endurance and resistance to disease 
than the highly cultured; they have greater 
physical stamina and vitality and are more re- 
sponsive to external stimuli. Developed human- 
ity manifests in coherency of conduct, in the 
perfecting of the social instinct, in the develop- 
ment of reason and in the education of ideas 
and of the will. In this evolution it has dis- 
tanced itself from primitive physical life and, 
therefore, is inferior to undeveloped humanity 
in the expression of physical life. 
45 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

The senses have developed from one common 
source, the tactual sense. As Lafcadio Hearn 
says: "All the sense organs are fundamentally 
alike, being evolutional modifications of the 
same morphological elements; — and all the 
senses are modifications of touch. Or, to use 
the simplest possible language, the organs of 
sense — sight, smell, taste, even hearing — have 
been alike developed. Even the human brain, 
by the modern testimony of histology and em- 
bryology is, at its first beginning, merely an in- 
folding of the epidermis layer." 

As the primitively spiritual bears striking re- 
semblance to the original and spiritual source 
of life, we find that the psychic sense in its re- 
lation is similar to the tactual sense in physical 
relations. It operates from a kindred basis. 
The variations of the psychic sense, clairaudi- 
ence, clairvoyance, telepathy and other psychic 
faculties, are commonly related. When the 
psychic sense is directed to vision, it is spoken 
of as psychic sight, when to hearing, as psychic 
hearing. The muscular reaction to sensation, 
as example, the lifting of a chair, ha3 its psy- 
chic counterpart in what is termed telaesthesia 
and exteriorization. Psychic perception is a 
46 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

matter of feeling. In the seances of the Psy- 
chical Eesearch Society the test mediums fre- 
quently say: "I see such and such an object 
or person." Closely questioned regarding their 
vision, they say that their sight is not so much 
a vision as a consciousness of an object and its 
qualities and of a person and his feelings and 
thoughts. They feel the color, the form, the 
vibration and so on. If a person has passed the 
earth-plane as a suicide, as a criminal sentenced 
to death, or from shock or disease, the medium 
feels the circumstances, environment and condi- 
tions through which death occurred. This re- 
fers to the mental type of psychical phenomena. 
It refers to those phenomena which forecast the 
future and recite present and past experiences 
of the persons for whom psychical phenomena 
are performed. 

The physical conditions under which these 
phenomena occur are generally regarded as ab- 
normal. The psychic is regarded by many as 
suffering from nervous trouble, and his psy- 
chic faculties considered as mental aberrations. 
There are, without doubt, instances when psychic 
faculties manifest with disordered nerves, but 
these instances are few and form no argument 
47 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

with regard to all psychic experiences. The 
drunkard has psychic experience in delirium, 
but his vision has not the moral or knowing 
value of the experience of a sage. We know a 
tree by the fruit it brings forth. If the fruit 
is sound, the tree is good. All psychic experi- 
ences which have a transforming value for good 
are proper in their causes and in their results. 
One may have religious experiences which are 
genuine and reasonable. If super-conscious 
perception leads to religious insight and truth, 
its value is important. Abnormal experiences 
disturb the sanity of the mind and harm the 
body. 

Psychic experiences of the highest order, the 
mental order, develop with the quickening of 
the vibrations of the mind. This quickening oc- 
curs when the mind is continuously concentrat- 
ed in a given direction. Continuous concentra- 
tion means the even, unbroken flow of thought. 
This form of persistent thought is not the re- 
sult of spasmodic effort, but of an unintermit- 
tent, patient, persevering, well-regulated sys- 
tem. The science of mathematics is not mas- 
tered by fits and starts of effort, but by years of 
concentrated effort. Men devote years of their 
48 



THoughts on Things Psychic 

lives toward the realization of certain desires. 
Great discoveries are the result of long-contin- 
ued investigation. In the greatest science, that 
of life, the student must bring infinite patience 
and strength of purpose to the task. The 
science of life is revealed through the science of 
concentration. 

The word concentration is much misunder- 
stood. The idea of effort, of positiveness, of 
activity is associated with it, when the very 
contrary is needed. Students of mental thera- 
peutics and of practical psychology, unfamiliar 
with the deeper truths of these sciences, concen- 
trate with the thought of concentration domi- 
nant in their mind. The very idea of concen- 
tration should be excluded from the mind. That 
fact alone causes the mind to be too self-con- 
scious, when consciousness should entirely cen- 
ter on its object. If one attempts to concentrate 
on the abstract principle of truth, and is con- 
scious that he is concentrating, he might as well 
give up the task. The greatness of an actor 
lies in the fact that he forgets himself in the 
portrayal of a character, becoming so identified 
with it, that the audience is swayed by the 
realism of the performance. In concentration, 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

the mind should become so engrossed with its 
subject as to be conscious of naught else. There 
have been thinkers, so taken up with their work 
that they have forgotten to eat their meals, 
though the food was before them. Such concen- 
tration is efficacious and leads to intuitive per- 
ception and immediate insight into the nature 
of the object concentrated upon. Men have 
wrested the marvels of the heavens and earth 
through concentration. All knowledge is the 
result of persistence of thought and investiga- 
tion. Deepest concentration has a psychologi- 
cal import. The separation of the mind from 
its surroundings and its lack of response to 
outer impressions become so restricted that, 
though a pistol were shot in the presence of the 
thinker, he would not hear it. Even the pres- 
ence of death has no impressive force. Archi- 
medes, the mathematician, was absorbed in 
geometry when the Roman soldier threatened 
his life. To the threat, the thinker replied: 
"Do not disturb my circles." So concentrated 
was he that the threat was waived aside. The 
concentration of Archimedes was the result of 
persistent study. His mind, exalted by the de- 
sire to know, was like a magnet. It drew 
knowledge. 50 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

There is an intimate psychological connection 
between knowledge and investigation. Investi- 
gation is the casual state of knowledge. Knowl- 
edge is the effect developing from investigation. 
Consciousness is attenuated in the direction of 
thought, and when it absorbs thought, it does 
not acquire something external to itself. It only 
transforms that which is apparently external 
into conscious value and experience. Before the 
mind grasps the principle of any science, the 
latter seems separate from the former. But 
when the science is mastered, consciousness and 
the science are one. That is the governing idea 
in all evolution. The persistence of subcon- 
scious or rather instinctive desire, in the course 
of centuries attached wings to the amphibian, 
and birds peopled the air. The complex struc- 
ture of the higher mammals, particularly of 
man, developed with continuity of instinctive 
desire on the part of the animal to properly re- 
late itself to changing conditions in its environ- 
ment. Further evolution will unfold through 
the same avenue. 

Desire is largely subconscious. Conscious de- 
sire rarely realizes its object, when the latter i3 
out of immediate reach. Subconscious desire 
51 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

arouses the latent faculties of the mind which 
vivify the normal faculties, such as reason, into 
hyper-activity, when thought is spontaneous and 
difficult problems solve themselves, as it were, 
through the quickened activity of the mind. 
This state is intuition. In memorizing, when 
a first or second effort fails to present the past 
word, thought or experience to consciousness, 
we say : "I cannot think of it just now." Sud- 
denly, what we are trying to think of leaps into 
consciousness. The process by which segregated 
states of consciousness of the past are co-ordi- 
nated and presented to consciousness is indis- 
cernible. The surface result of the process may 
be analyzed, and so forth, but the causal element 
in memory escapes us. It is sufficient to know 
that the store-house of the sub-conscious mind 
registers the slightest impression, and that noth- 
ing is lost. This thought should cause "the 
mind to remember its deeds." 

Through concentration in any direction, the 
faculties of the subconscious mind are aroused. 
Just as greatest scientific discoveries are re- 
vealed through the persistence of the desire to 
know, and through persistent research, so more 
concerning man's inner nature, the development 
52 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

of his potential faculties and their relation to 
his personal evolution is brought to conscious- 
ness, when the mind is eager to explore the area 
beyond its surface. 

The methods for the attainnment of knowl- 
edge are potential within the depths of each in- 
dividual soul. The knowledge of the most emi- 
nent of the world's thinkers is inherent in all 
beings. A mine of precious ore is in the desert. 
Buried beneath the rock and hard soil is untold 
wealth. But to secure that wealth, the pros- 
pector must leave the comforts of city life and 
wander over trackless wastes, many times in 
peril of life. Even when the mine is discovered 
and the assay reveals valuable ore, the owner 
must struggle with the odds of circumstances to 
finance its development. When the ore is ex- 
tracted it goes through the process of refine- 
ment. Then it is sent to various distributing 
points, the mint, factories and so forth. In the 
desert of life is the mine of knowledge. Gain- 
ing possession of that knowledge the soul ac- 
quires the greatest treasure. The method of 
discovering it is by control over the difficulties 
which present themselves. Such difficulties are 
the incessant clamorings of desire which tend 
53 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

to engage the mind in the pursuit of physical 
pleasure. The mind, absorbed in the senses, 
cannot rise superior to them, and thus knowl- 
edge is not obtained. The disengagement of the 
mind from lower physical vibrations and those 
things which represent physical aggrandize- 
ment, such as earthly possessions and material 
advantages, is reached through the dissociation 
of the mind from the ideas and emotions repre- 
senting purely physical life, and through the 
association of ideas and feelings tending to es- 
tablish the mind in higher modes of expression. 
This change in the mind requires a long time. 
It has taken centuries after centuries of evolu- 
tion, numbers upon numbers of lives for the 
development of life as it is represented in hu- 
man intelligence. The subconscious desire, 
which is the vital factor in evolutionary modi- 
fication from simple to complex forms of body, 
and from simple to complex expression, operates 
slowly and produces the momentous changes in 
life only after ages of concentrated effort. Judg- 
ment and reason are the highest developed fac- 
tors. Their practical application to the educa- 
tion of the will and to the revaluation of ideas 
determines the progress of the individual. The 
54 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

mind must leave the turbulence of passion. In 
the silence of discrimination and self-control, its 
vision is truer, and its purpose firmer. It is 
not led astray by the mirages of physical ex- 
pression; established in heart, it wends its way 
to the mine of truth. The Voice of the Silence 
is heard in the calm of self-possession. 

It is not sufficient, however, to discover truth 
and have an estimate of its all-important value 
in the realization of knowledge. The mine of 
knowledge must be developed. This develop- 
ment is obtained through discrimination of 
mind with regard to the circumstances, condi- 
tions or personalities which increase the ad- 
vantages of spiritual progression. Then the ore 
of knowledge is extracted. From persistence 
in effort amid the distraction which tempted 
him, the seeker reaps a treasure that neither 
rust can destroy and into which thieves cannot 
break. Precious ore is serviceable as it is dis- 
tributed and circulated. Knowledge is useful 
as it is turned into practical results, as it bene- 
fits others. The person who has knowledge 
helps himself more than he does others. The 
Swami Vivekananda said: "Things are not 
bettered, but we are bettered by making changes 
55 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

in them." Perfection in any line is impossible. 
All motions are circular, and the climax is the 
point at which retrogression commences. The 
force which manifests in perfection, which gives 
meaning to development is dissipated when its 
purpose is accomplished. Good and evil, sick- 
ness and health continue, though moral systems 
are developed and redeveloped and though hos- 
pitals and medical discoveries are ever at serv- 
ice. The miseries of life are remedied in the 
individual. In properly relating himself to 
natural and spiritual laws, one becomes master 
of whatever affects him. Obedient to the law 
he is blessed in its dispensations. ~Ko reform 
was ever sweeping or permanent. There are 
always new aspects, new advantages to be 
gained, new errors to be eradicated. 

It is the understanding of the individual 
which determines his progress in thought. It 
is the application of his ideas to practical ex- 
perience which rates his ' worth. Men know 
what they should do, but the working out of that 
knowledge is different. Concentration on 
knowledge arouses the necessity of responsible 
action. The passingness of life, the changes 
which men experience in their fortune, the in- 
56 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

stability of everything on which the heart is 
most centered teach the lesson that beyond the 
ephemeral phases of existence is the soul, and 
that its development is the real purposes and 
permanent fact in individual life. Feelings 
have greater power than ideas. These thoughts 
arouse corresponding feelings which, when in- 
tense, have a radical value in changing the cur- 
rents of expression and stimulate enthusiasm to 
higher purposes. 

Desire for knowledge attracts the teacher and 
renders the pupil fit. That desire must be con- 
tinuous and determined, else it has only a rela- 
tive value. The business man's purpose is the 
acquisition of money, and is expressed in his 
faithful performance of the duties which com- 
mercial life imposes. He sacrifices pleasure 
and personal comforts to advance his interests. 
This is effectual desire. When applied to the 
deeper relations of life, it assumes greater pro- 
portions. The discovery of knowledge is more 
comprehensive a purpose and an effort. It re- 
quires greater consistency and will-power. Will- 
power is the force of persistent desire. It 
breaks down barriers and impels the mind to 
the realization of its purpose. 
57 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

There is nothing mysterious in concentration. 
The word implies that consciousness can be fo- 
calized to the point where it becomes identified 
with the object of its attention. As food, 
though separate from the body before eating, is 
absorbed in the essence of the body, into flesh, 
blood and life when it is eaten, so when the 
mind approaches its object, it absorbs it into its 
life. 

The universe of man is the universe of his 
mind. Nature is motion. The mind reacts on 
this motion, and the universe is alive with in- 
numerable forms and different expressions of 
life. Meditation on the activity of the mind, 
on its reflex responses to outer impressions 
affords the soul an idea of the reality of the life 
of the mind as compared with the action of in- 
sensate matter. The body is the instrument 
through which the motion of external stimuli 
and the activity of the mind are co-ordinated. 
But the body is not the only instrument. Con- 
sciousness is the reality; there are other instru- 
ments through which it manifests than the body. 
The body relates it to physical life; the mind 
to mental life; the soul to spiritual life. Of 
these three existences there are endless differen- 
58 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

tiations and degrees. These differentiations 
and degrees manifest on their respective planes 
and in their respective manner. Intelligence 
reacts on rarer impressions than the physical. 
The universe is everywhere where the mind can 
imagine. Infinitely beyond and infinitely below 
this terrestrial life extend innumerable rela- 
tions of mind between what is mind and what 
is not mind. Meditation on this thought im- 
presses consciousness with the theoretical knowl- 
edge that it is not limited. It is only the instru- 
ment through which consciousness expresses 
itself that is conditioned. This theoretical 
knowledge may become practical. The miracu- 
lous events in the lives of the saints and the 
sages of all times prove this. The phenomena 
of spiritualism and hypnosis attest to it. As 
yet the liberation of consciousness from the in- 
strument through which it expresses itself is 
little understood. There are many instances 
where this occurs, but they are not satisfactorily 
explained. The understanding must ever be 
individual. One who has a religious experi- 
ence, such as feeling the presence of God or see- 
ing visions, does not doubt its authenticity. ISTo 
argument persuades him against his personal 
59 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

knowledge. The mystic life is incommunicable. 
It has powerful force, however. To abandon 
earthly pursuits, to regard the universe as a 
myth, and to follow such theories as are prac- 
ticed by the monastic orders of all ages requires 
a complete change of mind and the subjugation 
of physical to mental life. Electricity is an 
invisible force, and concerning it little is known, 
yet its force is tremendous. Thus, the power of 
concentration is infinite, though concentration, 
itself, is clear to many. Concentration is known 
only to those who have sufficient mental control 
to enliven the mind with a single idea and a 
firm purpose. 

There is a superconscious reality to all ob- 
jective phenomena and a superior life to objec- 
tive life. Concentration, or the established 
purpose and idea to get beyond limited expres- 
sion, lifts the mind beyond normal perception. 
Just as knowledge is discovered when the mind 
is quickened through intense thought, so con- 
sciousness is quickened through the firm desire 
to reach beyond limited perception. Inherited 
memory is transmitted into instinct and im- 
pulse and into natural tendencies to certain 
things and aversion to others. In the light of 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

spiritual science, inherited memory is the re- 
sultant of individual past lives. Thus, the in- 
stinctive emotions that crowd the mind origi- 
nate in conscious desires and actions of past 
lives. High-spirited persons with a sensitive 
consciousness represent the subconscious desire 
of many past lives to refine the sensibilities in 
order to experience life with keener feeling. 
The faculties and possibilities on the surface 
of personal life are evolved from the impetus 
and totalized effort of the Past. Continuous 
desire and the education of ideas will extend 
the surface expression and give deeper insight 
into the nature of life. 

Concentration is a state rather than an activ- 
ity. It is a state when there is but one idea in 
the mind and when the innumerable thought- 
waves of daily life are suppressed. A thorough 
distinction between a state of mind and a state 
of activity must be emphasized. The mind is 
active in the state of concentration, but the 
activity is called activity, and the state is called 
a state. This conception will relieve many mis- 
conceptions regarding concentration. There are 
persons who believe that to think absolutely 
nothing, to render the mind vacant of any idea 
61 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

whatever, to lose the sense of egoism and the 
thought that they are trying to make the mind 
vacant, is concentration. Sleep is brought about 
in that fashion, only in normal sleep there is 
no effort. It is a sort of self -induced anaethesia. 
It resembles a swoon. 

Concentration is not a sudden breaking away 
from normal consciousness. The passing of 
consciousness from this to other phases of ex- 
istence is natural. The mind, absorbed in 
thought, becomes unconscious of the surround- 
ings and vibrations of this plane and is con- 
scious on the plane of ideas and so forth. The 
mistake is in thinking that the mind is where 
the body is; it originates in the thought that 
men are bodies. The unconsciousness of terres- 
trial life arises through negative conditions. It 
is not the aim to become unconscious to normal 
life. Unconsciousness to the occurrences of this 
plane in concentration is an effect. Many think 
that the whole of concentration is embodied in 
becoming unconscious to the experiences of 
daily life. They accordingly proceed to "think" 
themselves into this state, with the result that 
they become psychically afflicted and, instead of 
62 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

realizing their desire, become farther removed 
from it. 

The superstition regarding psychical experi- 
ences should be eradicated. The paraphernalia 
of alleged occultism tend to hypnotize the mind 
into charlatanism. The so-called "hypnotic 
eye," the rigidity and solemnity of countenance, 
the sense of superiority, the thought of power 
over others, the desire to grow in the opinion of 
others have not the least connection with the 
spiritual science of concentration. They have 
brought practical psychology into disrepute. 
Persons with these qualities employ their smat- 
tering of psycho-spiritual truth to dupe the 
credulous. 

The faculty of concentrating the mind is a 
growth. One cannot learn it in a short time. 
It comes with mental development and educa- 
tion of the will. Freedom of will manifests 
itself in self-control. Men are not free by say- 
ing so, but by living their thought of freedom 
in dominion over emotions and thought, not in 
harmony with spiritual progress. Harnessing 
natural power demands discovery, invention 
and great labor. Harnessing thought is far 
more difficult. It is best to do away with every 
63 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

bit of superstition and explain concentration in 
natural terms. Instead of calling concentra- 
tion by its name, it may be better understood by 
calling it fixed attention. Fixed attention brings 
the idea in simple terms. Examining them- 
selves, many persons claiming concentration, 
dominion of mind over matter, therapeutic 
power and so forth, will get a new opinion of 
these things and of themselves. They will know 
that their real knowledge is exceedingly limited. 
When they arrive at that knowledge they are 
taking the first steps to true knowledge and true 
power. 

Noting his daily life, the individual sees that 
he rarely exercises fixed attention in any line. 
If he is a student he will discover that his edu- 
cation consists mainly in stocking his memory 
with a lot of facts. Memorizing does not re- 
quire the fixed attention which is demanded in 
creative thought. It is not in memorizing the 
thoughts of others that knowledge is gained, but 
in the individual perception of truth and in per- 
sonal observation of facts. Fixed attention is 
necessary, and this is absent with the average 
student, distracted with numerous other condi- 
tions. In any of the walks of life, the indi- 
64 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

vidual, who impartially scrutinizes his daily 
existence, finds that little fixed attention is di- 
rected to any purpose. Duties are performed 
because irresponsibility endangers economic 
safety and produces other unpleasant and un- 
comfortable circumstances. The employed busi- 
ness man generally has only a minor interest in 
his work. His attitude is not personal and is 
not his personal concern, except as his concep- 
tion of duty makes him feel so, and that is not 
the case with the greater number. There is no 
continuous consistency in his personal relations. 
He is swayed by impulse, and has no systematic 
habits. 

The lack of fixed attention is manifest in 
many households. The husband has no regular 
method of providing, and the wife mismanages. 
In the struggle for existence no established hab- 
its are developed in the children, with the result 
that the girl develops into a prattling, irrespon- 
sible woman, and the boy, according to the chance 
influences of his associations. Refinement 
of manners and fixed habits of conduct and busi- 
ness form the basic principle upon which society 
is founded. Refinement is achieved in fixed at- 
tention to the demands of cultivated social life. 
65 



Thoughts on Things Psychic 

It requires moral control, for the spirit of re- 
finement is the spirit of the choicest qualities 
of character. Success in business demands fixed 
attention. Proprietors of business interest have 
this fixed attention developed. It is necessary 
for their welfare. That is why, generally speak- 
ing, they have fixed habits, because a fixed habit 
in one direction encourages fixed habits in other 
directions. 

Fixed attention in all the affairs of life 
rounds out the character, strengthens the will, 
and induces success in every direction. Tor 
this reason it should be cultivated. The man 
who can think and continuously think in a cer- 
tain direction accomplishes the purpose identi- 
fied with his thought. He commands Fortune. 
He is continuously expectant. He understands 
that the secret of success is determination, and 
that determination is only another word for 
fixed attention. 



MOEAL TRUTHS. 

The breaking of the moral code is the break- 
ing of natural law. All excesses or the practice 
of conduct leading to excesses are unhealthy, as 
well as immoral. This affords new views of 
many things, which, differently considered, lose 
relation and significance. When men realize 
that different practices disturb physical equili- 
brium, they will at least appreciate the uses of 
the law, even if they fail to follow it. The law 
is not short-sighted. At times it is simply rend- 
ered, and men imagine the truth as something 
far-fetched and fanciful, but the wisdom is real, 
as its practical application verifies. We are 
often blindly led by desire into paths seemingly 
strewn with pleasures, when, in reality, they are 
bordered with pain. Many deeds are "like 
goodly apples, rotten at the heart." We are be- 
guiled by the sophism of desire. The moral has 
value in that it is protective. The immoral is 
injurious. When we do wrong it is ourselves 
whom we injure. The influence of conduct may 
extend to others, but the individual reaction is 
67 



Moral Truths 

of far greater consequence. This idea, thor- 
oughly established in consciousness, would in- 
hibit the commital of many a crime. As it is, 
men believe they are pleasing themselves when 
they are frequently causing themselves illness 
and sorrow as a result of thoughtless conduct. 
It is like a sphere. The presenting side of the 
sphere seems pleasing and promising, but the 
opposite side is dark and foreboding. The per- 
sonality turns the presenting side about to ob- 
tain a more complete view, and the dark side 
shows itself. That is the meaning of immoral- 
ity. When we are immoral, we are our worst 
enemies. As the soul evolves, it discovers that 
it has neither friend nor enemy, but that its 
own acts attract good and evil conditions. The 
soul, in this, is absolutely free. Within its own 
depths lies the power to evoke bliss or pain, and 
as most persons are in ignorance of how to 
arouse the hidden forces of the soul, they meas- 
ure out pain to themselves, although their pur- 
pose is self-indulgence. Pain and repeated 
pain follows, because the soul has not as yet de- 
veloped the discrimination which distinguishes 
between the things which truly make for pleas- 
ure and the things which cause pain. The ap- 



Moral Truths 

pearance of things deceive. The eye of the 
mind must train itself to see beneath the sur- 
face and to distinguish the germ of pain in the 
heart of seeming pleasure. There is no happi- 
ness in immoral or selfish acts. Inordinate pas- 
sion leads to mental and physical ruin. The 
drain on nervous energy is a robbing of the vital 
stamina. Passion is the perversion of natural 
desire. The fire and fever of inordinate desire 
consume the mental and psychic forces, disturb 
the instinctive life and destroy the conditions 
for spiritual harmony and progress. In these 
things lie the interpretation and logical con- 
sistency of right conduct. Right should be en- 
acted not for any sake, but for the sake of 
right. To be morally right is to be mentally 
and physically adjusted ; it means the harmony 
and perfect equilibrium of personality. Man's 
responsibility during the sojourn on earth is 
the perfection of personality, and personality 
can be rendered perfect only by controlling its 
various principles. This presents a worthy at- 
titude in relation to justice and truth. True, 
there is a humanitarian, an unselfish, and an 
evolutionary motive for doing right, but the 
greatest motive is self-perfection. 
69 



Moral Truths 

It is not in verbal assent to moral codes and 
in their intellectual support that good is done, 
but in actual, daily practice. Practice of moral 
demands will open the door of spiritual knowl- 
edge. If we are true to ourselves and develop 
the very best within us, it follows that we can 
then be false to no man. We should be moral, 
because it is unhealthy to be otherwise. Some 
of the passions are directly telling upon the 
organs and functions of the body. Anger can 
cause the rupture of blood vessels and disturb 
the proper action of the liver; fear will cause 
nervous prostration, often death. Jealousy and 
grief also have their effects on the body. Cases 
are frequently recorded where infants have died 
as the result of nursing the mother's milk, 
poisoned by her sudden and violent anger. The 
nervous and functional troubles arising through 
inverted desires and emotions are numerous, 
and often chronic and mortal. Therefore, even 
from a physical point of view, too much stress 
cannot be laid on the uses of morality. Morality 
will not be regarded much longer under a dog- 
matic or purely religious heading. The time is 
fast approaching when the morally afflicted will 
be placed in the same standing as the physically 
70 



Moral Truths 

afflicted, and treated and cared for. Advanced 
surgeons are already performing operations 
upon children of abnormal tendencies and, 
in frequent instances, complete cures are 
brought about. There is deeper value and 
importance attached to the conditions of the 
morally afflicted, for they are no longer con- 
sidered wicked, but sick and, as sick persons, 
need medical or surgical attention. Under the 
heading of immorality may be included all such 
insanities as morbid worries of whatever de- 
scription. Eesponsible persons have no right 
to worry. It is sinful. It tends to self-depre- 
ciation and to weakness, and weakness is the 
only original sin. Morbid fears deplete vitality. 
Worry is as much of a sin as any numbered in 
the decalogues of religions. The most import- 
ant influence of worry is its tendency to self- 
destruction. There are more ways to the sui- 
cide's grave than the sudden, fitful, self-destruc- 
tion almost daily witnessed. There is the self- 
murder arriving at its purpose by circuitous 
paths, and of these are worry and passion. In 
the mind of Him Who wots of all things, the 
person who drinks himself to the tomb, or slay^ 
himself through mad passions, is as guilty of 
71 



Moral Truths 

suicide as he who deliberately places the revol- 
ver to his head and shoots the bullet that sends 
him to eternity. This is another value of mor- 
ality, the value of responsibility. The results 
which this responsibility carries are more ter- 
rorsome than the wildest fancies of hell, for, 
unlike hell, they are real and cruel. It is only 
through pain that experience is gained, and 
often that pain is bitterest. 

Experience is knowledge in the nut-shell ; not 
dry, scholastic learning, but the conscious ap- 
preciation of the values of life. It is often a 
hard drilling. The pursuer of passion, fettered 
by the iron chain of habit, has a hard time 
bursting the links of vice. Yet it all lies in the 
educated will that must be aroused into activity 
and into determination of purpose. Then the 
conquest is easy, but this arousing of will is 
far from the mind of the immoral man. He 
cannot school his mind to the necessary renun- 
ciation, so pain and misery compel him. When 
a man realizes danger from a certain direction 
he will not follow the line. The stricken soul 
must come to the practical realization of the 
danger and the suffering following the practice 
of evil conduct and absorb into consciousness the 
72 



Moral Truths 

experience of pain. Then only can reform be 
hoped for. Then the will arises equal to the 
task of conquest over moral infirmities. Then 
the man can take a new hold on himself, uniting 
the lower with the higher self. Men are their 
own executioners. There is no god who pun- 
ishes. Who shall punish the soul in its nature 
essentially divine? The essence of the soul is 
the essence of the law. The law and the indi- 
vidual are one. Therefore, it is the individual 
himself who inflicts his own punishment. Un- 
acquainted with the vital truth and with that 
discrimination which distinguishes between 
good and evil, the soul pursues the mad course 
of desire, satisfies the cravings of the lower self 
and thus comes to misfortune. 

Each and every channel of imperfect expres- 
sion has to be reconstructed. Each discord 
must be brought to harmony, until the entire 
nature of personality is well related. The only 
duty in life is the transformation of evil into 
good habits. In the perfection of character is 
the perfection of personality, and in the perfec- 
tion of the personal is the growth of the real 
individual ; and the perfection of the individual 
73 



Moral Truths 

is the discovery of the soul and its identity with 
the Supreme. 

The soul is a magnet, attracting to itself 
everything and anything which it desires. At- 
tractive forces attract to themselves only those 
conditions which are harmonious with their na- 
tures. This harmony often becomes inverted, 
and the attraction and the result are, accord- 
ingly, inverted. One thing which, practically 
applied, is the greatest curse or blessing, is the 
knowledge that nothing can affect us from out- 
side, that nothing outside of our own nature can 
impose anything upon us. If someone robs us, 
it is we who are robbing ourselves. If someone 
cuts our throat, it is we who are cutting our 
own throat. If we are illy born and physically 
deformed, we have ourselves to thank. No one 
but ourselves is to blame. We are the masters 
of our fate and the architects of our destiny. 
In our hands lies the future, perhaps not the 
immediate future, for that is already deter- 
mined by deeds, yet that, though not radically 
changeable, can be bettered by the resolve to live 
harmoniously. Once the will has been edu- 
cated and aroused, there is no end to its trans- 
forming power for good. Nothing can prevent 
74 



Moral Truths 

its currents of expression. It is all in the will 
to be. The will to be leads to exalted heights, 
transforms the miserable into the divine, 
changes the currents of evil into good, develops 
the inner faculties and powers of Spirit, leads 
to Self-knowledge and, ultimately, to the reali- 
zation of spiritual consciousness. Therefore, 
men should make it the master-purpose of their 
lives to cherish and practically set forth the will 
to be. 

Moral practice is the pathway of redemption. 
The divine can realize divinity only in the man- 
ifestation of divinity. The pure and holy are 
realized only in the personalization of purity 
and holiness. That which is beyond birth and 
death must manifest this beyondness, and this 
manifestation is brought about through the con- 
stant practice of morality and unselfishness. 
In the core of every life stands that one Self. 
This is the true ; this alone is the immortal fact ; 
this alone is the saving knowledge. This im- 
mortal Self is to be reached by the pathway of 
the glorious and perfect ones, those who have 
gone before, they the Sons of Light and Truth 
who have manifested in the Buddha and in the 
Christ character. These characters express the 
75 



ZMoral Truths 

summary of moral practice. They are the es- 
sence of all that is pure and holy, all that is 
good and great, all that is perfect and sublime. 
This exalted state is reached only through long 
and wearisome lives of infinite patience and 
struggle where lapses are frequent and the rise 
difficult. The goal cannot be reached in a mo- 
ment. Everything is the result of long, patient 
and persevering effort. That is why the path- 
way of the Immortals is beset with obstacles and 
difficulties at every turn. 

What is the nature of the moral ? How is it 
to be determined ? What are its essential char- 
acteristics ? That must be discerned by the soul 
itself. It is the duty of the soul to lay questions 
before its individual understanding. It must 
face each and every moral problem and solve 
that problem to the exclusive definition of the 
individual conscience. The soul must find itself 
through the solution of the moral problems. 
When it awakens to a sense of personal freedom 
and discovers that knowledge which leads to 
the emancipation of the intellect and to the 
broadening of spiritual vision, then only is it 
in harmony with moral values. Morality has 
as deep a value in the order of life as science. 
76 



Moral Truths 

Its final conclusions are scientific and, as pre- 
viously stated, hygienic. The entire energy of 
the universe is far from physical ; it is radically 
moral. It is not mental or scientific; it has 
purely moral relations. For example, the birth 
of the globe we inhabit has its ultimate purpose 
in the perfection of the feelings of its creatures 
and, as this perfection is to the greatest extent 
synthesized in man, it is the ethical develop- 
ment of the human race for which the earth is 
revolving about the sun. This is the purpose 
for which the sun rises and sets, for which the 
entire solar system moves and evolves. The 
ethical has its highest import in the consolida- 
tion of the true nature of man and the 
disintegration of retrogressive impulses and 
tendencies. 



77 



PSYCHIC VALUES AND SPIRITUAL 
CONSCIOUSNESS. 

A teacher has said: "All search is in vain 
until we begin to perceive that knowledge is 
within ourselves, and that no one can help us, 
that we must help ourselves." If it does noth- 
ing else, the fact that all knowledge is within 
ourselves will at least make us independent, rid 
us of weakness, of diffidence, and make us buoy- 
ant in the effort to realize the deepest depths of 
soul. The struggle is long, the path is long, the 
goal far removed. The flash of illumination 
may have visited the soul and have given it in- 
spiration for further effort, but the knowledge 
that all is within us must have a practical bear- 
ing. The knowledge of itself is only of so much 
value. What is needed is a practical applica- 
tion, and this leads us into the realm of psy- 
chology. 

Persistent mental endeavor tends to develop 
the higher brain centers, to specialize them from 
the average or exceptionally developed to the 
78 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

super-normal and beyond the super-normal. We 
have arrived at intuition. In other words, 
there is a particular condition of the mind 
where its activity is greater, more vivid, more 
accurate than under the process of reasoning. 
Its discrimination, perception and judgment 
are truer. Reason has altogether given way to 
the more steady flowing of the mind. It is a 
condition of feeling rather than of thinking; 
of feeling, not as we understand the common 
term, but of feeling through which mental ob- 
jects are realized to the eye of intuition with as 
great a clarity of vision as physical objects are 
seen by the physical eye. This faculty of exal- 
tation and of higher evolution comes through 
the constant practice of concentration. It be- 
comes established and furthered in expression, 
even as the rational element in human nature 
becomes established and furthered in expression 
by the constant application of reason to outer 
relations. So there is no mystery-mongering, 
nothing in the accepted meaning of the "oc- 
cult." It is simply evolution carried along nor- 
mal channels of development. It is no more 
wonderful than the evolution of the physical 
senses. It is only a new method of seeing ob- 

7.a 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

jects that are beyond normal sense or rational 
vision. 

It is the spiritual faculty through which the 
mind comes into immediate relation with and 
into the understanding of its own symbols. Un- 
der normal circumstances physical vision leaves 
no doubt as to the object perceived. In rational 
vision there is seen only the clarity of ideas in 
their logical sequence, and this is more neces- 
sary than the physical vision, because by it we 
arrive at the realization of that Essence of 
Truth without which civilization would col- 
lapse. The intuitive vision closely resembles 
the physical vision in so far as the object of its 
vision has a real, concrete existence. There is 
the actual feeling, the actual perception of the 
actual presence of ideas. Unlike the rational 
vision that deals with abstract conceptions, the 
intuitive vision deals with objective facts. In 
other words, the abstract conception of the ra- 
tional vision becomes translated into terms of 
consciousness. One can almost see them. 
Doubt no longer exists as to the reality and to 
the existence of the truth and all that the truth 
implies. For example, the truth of the immor- 
tality of the soul, of the freedom of the will, 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

and like vital truths are no longer matters of 
debate, or matters to which hesitancy of recog- 
nition may accrue. They are objective facts 
as real; in fact, more real by far than the phe- 
nomena of physical existence. It is difficult to 
adequately interpret the evolved state when 
consciousness comes into direct relation with 
ideas. We have so long been slaves to the idea 
that only that is real which we can see, hear, 
feel, or otherwise perceive through sense con- 
tact. Thoughts, desires and sensations, divest- 
ed of their physical influence and expression, 
have no existence in the minds of many. They 
speak of them, but their speech is tinted with 
their indefinite and unintelligent idea of 
thought. What is now suggested for purposes 
of illustration, and will be later fully dwelt on, 
is the all-important fact that thoughts are 
things, possessing an intense reality and mo- 
tive influence in the physical as well as in the 
mental order. In the intuitive state these 
thoughts are dimly seen, and the perception is 
so developed that the mind is assured of their 
actual existence and meaning. In psychic de- 
velopment, in the higher phases of the intuitive, 
when psychic consciousness and control are fully 
81 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

manifested, this dim sight of thoughts and of 
their reality and significance and existence, is 
superseded by true clairvoyance, true and clear 
sight. The sense of sight has been fully trans- 
lated to the psychic plane. It is exceedingly 
difficult to speak of thought-forms and satisfac- 
torily explain them to those who have not as 
yet even heard of the reality and existence of 
thought, as men undertand reality and existence 
here in this limited sphere of earth perception. 
The higher interpretation of thought will be 
reviewed later. Of course, this condition of 
the mind, or better said, of consciousness, is of 
deep psychological value, and will, accordingly, 
have to be interpreted. The intuitive state is 
really a psychic state. 

The foregoing general intimation with regard 
to the introspective state of the mind, that of 
persistent mental endeavor, and the intuitive 
state leads to the consideration of what, in the 
Oriental schools of thought, is called concentra- 
tion. All mental activity, of any description 
whatever, may be properly termed concentra- 
tion. When mental activity in any way becomes 
particularly individualized and carried on for 
some appreciable time, the term concentration 
82 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

is applicable. In normal, daily existence the 
mind is like a whirlpool. Stray and scattered 
ideas imperfectly formulated, imperfectly en- 
tertained ideas, vague ideas, ideas with little 
coherency and with a tendency toward dissipa- 
tion are known to crowd the mind. This condi- 
tion is undesirable. It leads to the psychical 
uncertainty of mental activity ; it leads to weak- 
ness, incoherency and indirection of thought. 
Thinkers are aware that all attainment, whether 
artistic, mechanical, or philosophical, is the 
composite result of strains of thought follow- 
ing in successive and definite strata. In other 
words, various mental modifications equal in 
identity, quality and purpose are exclusively en- 
tertained by the mind. The mind is the highest 
universal force and is possessed with the highest 
gravitation and attraction. Now, when that 
force is brought from a dissipated condition into 
a condition of coherency and direction, its 
power is unlimited. Concentration, therefore, 
is a focalization of the mind, a centralization 
of the whole mind about one given point of 
meditation. The mind is brought into one wave 
form so that it thinks of nothing else, knows 
nothing, but the particular variations of thought 
83 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

in the mental spectrum. The concentrative fac- 
ulty is the greatest possession of the soul, be- 
cause the latter alone is the only illuminating 
power in the universe. In a relative sense it 
may be said that the mind is. As men are en- 
gulfed in a cosmic ocean of mind and matter, 
as the real essence of the soul is to many un- 
known and incommunicable, either by language 
or symbols, for the purpose of illustration they 
have to bring the formulae concerning the soul 
within the range of the understanding. Thus, 
what is really to be attributed to the soul is rela- 
tively attributed to the mind. Mental substance 
is as unreal as physical substance. To believe 
otherwise is ignorance, is illusion. The soul, 
and the soul alone, gives phenomenal existence 
both to the mind and to the body. 

This truth is of supreme importance as a 
working factor for him who sets about the great 
quest for Self-knowledge. First, he must come 
to the understanding that it is not by the ordi- 
nary processes of the mind that spriritual devel- 
opment is to be had. Spiritual consciousness 
has nothing to do with mental activity. Indeed, 
mental activity is an obstacle rather than of any 
great assistance. It cannot be too emphatically 
84 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

repeated, that all knowledge is at first intuitive 
and, is through the intuitive and the higher or- 
ders of the intuitive, indirectly of divine origin. 
This fact gives us the secret of divine revela- 
tions. All phenomenal knowledge, even as all 
existence, is derived from the Unconditioned 
Being, omnipresent, omniscient, and omniexist- 
ent, with which, by reason of that omniexist- 
ence, we are identical. "Thou art That/' the 
Vedas say. In the same spirit, the Christ said : 
"I and my Father are one." Thus knowledge 
is absolute. It is the divine essence. Kelative 
knowledge is relative only because the manifest- 
ing conditions for supreme knowledge are miser- 
ably limited and finite. All knowledge is intui- 
tive. What reason does is to sanction already 
intuitive discerned truth. 

This conception of knowledge is of tremen- 
dous value to the seeker after truth. Next in 
importance is information with regard to those 
methods of concentration whereby the mind be- 
comes immediately susceptible to the direct per- 
ception of intuitive knowledge. Just as insist- 
ence must be made upon the fact that all knowl- 
edge is intuitive, so likewise must it be insisted 
that the mind is only an instrument, a conduit, 
85 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

not a creative or an originating, but a distribut- 
ing and a dispensating factor. With this truth 
firmly established, the soul in search of Self- 
understanding will look to its own truth-per- 
ceiving faculty. It will endeavor to make soul 
known unto soul, to allow soul to be illumined 
by its own light. How is this to be accom- 
plished ? This has been the question which has 
always been asked and variously answered. 
Some of these answers are metaphysical, some 
agnostic, some religious. Most of them are 
wrong. The soul can reveal itself only when 
both mind and body, when the entire person- 
ality, and all its attributes have become passive. 
The question is, how can this be brought about ? 
The answer is: "By concentration." 

Concentration has been greatly misunder- 
stood, generally because it has been misinter- 
preted by those who wish to herald themselves 
as teachers of the occult. Another reason for 
this misunderstanding is that no central idea 
of concentration and of its methods can ever be 
truly taught. Concentration is an individual 
experience and the methods applied are indi- 
vidual. There are given formulae, but they are 
so far out of reach of normal intelligence and 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

practicability that it would have been as well 
had they never been offered. Besides, all con- 
centration is psychical, and he who would at- 
tempt concentration must therefore repair to 
one who is a master of it, one who has traveled 
the hyper-normal pathway of menta-psychical 
consciousness. Concentration has been spoken 
of as that state of the mind when it is one- 
formed and one-pointed, when all its activity is 
specialized into one state. RTow, paradoxical 
as it may seem, condition in reality is not a con- 
dition of activity, but one of extreme passivity. 
That is, the highest climax of concentrative ef- 
fort places the mind beyond that effort, places 
it beyond its normal phases, places it into a 
super-sensuous, and out of the normal into the 
super-conscious state. Before any of the great 
spiritual truths, such as the intimate conscious- 
ness of the immortality of the soul and of its 
spiritual superiority over the universe of time, 
space and causation, and over what we under- 
stand as matter, the mind must have become 
silent with not one of its activities in play. 

To come into relation with any spiritual 
truth we must become conscious of it. This ap- 
plies not only to the lower order of spiritual 
87 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

truth, but to the truth of Self-knowledge. Con- 
sciousness alone is knowledge. Keasoning never, 
because it is not the highest conduit in the reve- 
lation of knowledge. Men could reason for 
thousands of years about the climatic and the 
geological generalities of Egypt, but what is a 
ton of reasoning in comparison with the actual 
presence in the land of the Nile? The same 
applies to mental and spiritual facts. Reason- 
ing throughout time would not avail, for without 
the flash of intuition and without its spiritual 
truth, the human would still be the animal ; we 
should still be guided by the instinctive. It 
comes to pass, therefore, that all spiritual truths 
must be intensely realized, actually perceived, 
and when these things are perceived, and when 
this order of perception has reached its highest 
point, then not only Self-knowledge is gained, 
but knowledge of all things. The incomparable 
Vedas, and the Vedanta philosophy through 
which they are expressed make this attainment 
of realization of spiritual truth and Self- 
knowledge the very goal and the only goal of 
religion and religious effort. The words they 
use to express the necessity of this attainment 
and the intensity of the perception of spiritual 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

realization are the most imperative words ever 
uttered to men. Therefore it is said in the 
TJpanishads : "That Self, O Maitreyi, is to be 
seen, heard, perceived and known. When that 
Self is seen, heard, perceived and known, then 
all else is known." That Self is the real I of 
every man. It is the only I in the universe. It 
is the same I, the same Self residing in the heart 
of the flower, in the heart of the stars, of the 
sun and moon, in the heart of the inhabitants 
of the animal world, of the heaven worlds and 
of the worlds of hell, in the heart of all human 
life and in the heart of life that is beyond the 
human. This thought of unity is held by 
science with its declaration of the unity of all 
life and form and of the identity of all life, 
form and intelligence with an unknown and in- 
describable spiritual unity, the sole reality of 
Being, One without a second. 

This is somewhat of an anticipation, but it is 
the climax of concentration. For concentration 
to be of any value these truths must be borne 
in mind. It is only the half-educated who 
laugh at spiritual assertion, but research into 
the various departments of science is suggestive 
of the spiritual findings of our modern day. We 
£9 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

can only touch upon the psychological phases of 
concentration. To be fully understood they 
must be actually perceived. It is difficult for 
an explorer of some hitherto unknown land to 
speak of the new conditions, geographical and 
otherwise, with any great understanding on the 
part of his hearers. He can use such terms as 
"vast wilderness," but they are only of a cer- 
tain representative value. The hearer, to have 
a complete consciousness of the described facts, 
must go to that country. It is the same con- 
cerning foreign states of consciousness that ac- 
crue to the normal consciousness in the higher 
stages of concentration. An ounce of practice 
is greater than the perusal of the best-written 
books describing the psychology of supercon- 
sciousness. 

The consideration of the concentrative prac- 
tice includes a meditation on a number of its 
forms. Some of these forms are mental, others 
partly mental, partly physical, while again 
others are psychical. Through the control of 
the physical, super-physical consciousness de- 
velops and thus corresponds with the immediate 
perception of psychic truth and value. The 
mental form that is the highest consists in the 
90 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

control of the mind and through the mind in 
the control of the entire psychic element and of 
the entire personality. All modes of conscious- 
ness, whether psychic, mental or physical, be- 
come subordinate and subservient to the edu- 
cated will. This education of the will inad- 
vertently comes through effort to realize Self- 
knowledge and through the understanding of 
spiritual truth. The will is the controlling fac- 
tor, not only of the evolutionary tendency, but 
of present environment. It serves as the modi- 
fying quality of latest expression. It is the 
force by which character is moulded. The char- 
acters of men are the expressions of the degree 
of strength and of intensity of the will to be. 
All our moral systems, as well as educational, 
are conditions of the social order that make for 
the development of the individual and of the 
racial will to develop. The psychical states of 
concentration and the meaning of effort toward 
the understanding of Self are significant of the 
education of the will to be, the will to grow 
out of limited attainment and to reach that 
point of will-education where the soul becomes 
one in character with the idea of spiritual unity. 
Self-knowledge teaches that Self is the unit of 
91 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

existence, that It is impersonal, and thus high- 
er than the personal. Self-knowledge admon- 
ishes us that our characters should emphasize 
the practical value of this knowledge; in other 
words, that we should become as great in expres- 
sion as we know we are in reality. Thus will 
and thought come out of the same order. Char- 
acter and knowledge are of the same arrange- 
ment. They are dual phases of one vast ideal. 
The mental concentrative process is comple- 
mentary to these thoughts. It signifies that 
these thoughts must become a part of the general 
and integral consciousness of the individual, 
not in modes of thought and speculation, but in 
modes of character and consciousness. This is 
the true meaning of concentration. It does not 
involve the mere thinking of thoughts, but the 
translation of these thoughts into practical 
values. It does not mean that one must loosen 
all mental hold and become mentally inactive. 
That would be only a polite characterization of 
laziness. It would lead to mental atrophy and 
to the suppression of high ideals. What we 
want is highest expression of ideals. The 
trouble is that so much meaningless value has 
been attached to psychological conditions. It is 
92 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

always the cry "to have/ 7 never the cry "to be." 
The public understanding of concentration is 
summed up in a few words that imply the super- 
natural, the mentally fantastic, the spiritually 
weird, and the psychically wonder-producing. 
This condition and attitude cannot be too stren- 
uously denounced. They have led to the per- 
secution and the ridiculing of truly spiritual 
men and women. In fact, the average person 
is totally ignorant of the central fact in the true 
occult conception and meaning of concentration. 
Then, there are those who lay stress on concen- 
tration simply for what psychological advantage 
and possible occult power may be gained there- 
by. These are the ones who want to sail through 
the air, desire that their curiosity be appeased 
by long-distance sight and hearing. These are 
the ones who claim to receive letters from the 
Mahatmas of Thibet and from the Yogis of the 
Himalayan regions by an occult mail route. 

The first thing that those truly desirous of 
spiritual information will have to learn is that 
the various psychological phases of occultism, 
and those that come by concentration are insig- 
nificant of themselves. The central and the 
vital truth in all occultism, the central and the 
93 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

highest truth in all concentration is the knowl- 
edge and the realization of the soul. Let vision- 
aries have their visions. Let them be content 
with appearances and with the things on the 
surface. Let them rest satisfied with the unim- 
portant things that bind the soul into greater 
bondage and subject it to greater and to more 
numerous illusions. Psychical phantasmagoria 
are as misleading as the changes of physical 
substance. They in no way serve to satisfy the 
spiritual desire or the religious instinct. Ex- 
cess of superstition has made the work of true 
teachers very difficult. They have to fight, not 
only against innate ignorance and the dogmatic 
adherence that they find rampant in the world 
of the average, but they have to battle that 
hydra-headed monster, superstition, the greatest 
curse of spiritual blindness. We have seen how, 
at first, these teachers were surrounded with 
numerous followers, how their every act was 
lauded, how they were regarded as almost super- 
human, and how hero-worship was paid to them. 
This was because miracles were expected of 
them, and psychical phenomena and kindred 
things, to satisfy the unworthy curiosity of a 
gaping public. These were not forthcoming. 
94 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

Only truth was spoken; the spiritual message 
and the message of peace, alone, were voiced. 
We have accordingly observed the falling away 
of these numbers and the misunderstanding of 
the mission of these teachers. 

It has always been and will always be the 
mind that is ever desirous of being entertained. 
Were it as sincerely desirous of truth as it 
appears on the surface, Utopian conditions 
would prevail throughout the world. This globe 
would be changed into a paradise and the race 
transformed into a race of gods. 

Momentary enthusiasm is of no value in the 
effort at spiritual truth. It is only by patience, 
by thoroughness and persistence of purpose, by 
a tremendous faith in self effort and by an un- 
bounded self-confidence that the goal is reached. 
Then, too, a spirit of cheerfulness that never 
vacillates, never lowers its level of quality must 
be maintained. Despondency and weakness of 
mind are the greatest barriers to the attainment 
of any success, and especially of spiritual suc- 
cess. Any melancholia, any psychopathic con- 
dition which pulls the mind and inhibits its 
highest expression and activity must be rigidly 
combatted and successfully overcome by the 
95 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

aspirant. Religion is not a matter of sadness 
or of woeful feeling. Neither is the effort for 
the development of spiritual consciouness. We 
of the Western hemisphere have been whipped 
by the nightmare-fear of hell into believing all 
sorts of things that are dangerous to believe, 
things that may lead to unsettled and unsound 
states of mind. Instead of bringing light, such 
things bring darkness. Dogmatic religious sys- 
tems have no place in the index of things lead- 
ing to spiritual knowledge. It is a sad fact, and 
the statement may be very unpleasant, but the 
greater number of religious organizations have 
been brought about and are sustained through 
hypnotism and through the paralysization of 
the intellect and will. They have origin in the 
control exercised by the psychopathically devel- 
oped will of certain leaders. As an example, 
Mohammed. Certainly he was a great man. He 
possessed great personal magnetism, great de- 
velopment of will, great hypnotic force, yet he 
was a psychopathic study. He happened to 
stumble into those superconscious states to 
which concentration leads, and stumbling into 
them is dangerous and disastrous. The subject 
will have inverted conceptions; he will have il- 
96 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

lusions and hallucinations. He will bring only 
half-truths as the result of his experience. That 
is why Mohammedanism is tinctured with so 
much of the irrational. The ethical system is 
flawless in the integral part, but the psycho- 
pathic issue manifests in stupid beliefs and in 
superstitions. There is no question that Mo- 
hammed had some very ununsual experiences, 
experiences of an occult order and of a psychical 
character. His experience embraces what is 
known in modern psychology as levitation, as 
telaBthesia, as clairvoyance, clairaudience and 
the like, but he experienced them haphazardly, 
unsystematically, and without any understand- 
ing of the conditions which induced them. He 
would have made an interesting study as a pa- 
tient in some psychological clinic. The same 
statements can be made of the uninstructed and 
personally mystifying experiences of many 
medieval mystics. Keligions, whose founders 
and dispensers are psychologically off, have 
been the retrogressive factors in civilization, 
and by no means the progressive factors they 
allege themselves to be. 

Any doctrine or set of beliefs that cause men 
to assert weakness, to assert the possibility of 
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Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

the annihilation of the soul, to assert subservi- 
ence to the whims of an extra-cosmic god, given 
to all the variations of human passions, are 
damnable, and spread the germ of insanity. The 
highest spiritual truth cannot be gained through 
acknowledgement of any weakness. It is not 
to be gained by sitting down and weeping over 
sins. Great teachers never speak of "sins." 
They have a certain horror of the word "sin," 
because it is identified with the deepest frailties. 
In place of that word they use the term "mis- 
take." They speak of error and ignorance, but 
they cannot understand the meaning of the 
word sin as it is theologically interpreted. Sin 
is a hideous nightmare. Like the idea of eter- 
nal punishment, it has dominated the Western 
mind to the greatest psychological disaster. 
Those who have realized Self, those who know 
their spiritual worth, say that human nature is 
liable to mistakes. The mind may place its 
ideal a little too high and fall short of the 
mark. It may attempt to soar on untrained 
spiritual and mental wings and, instead of fly- 
ing, tumble down to earth. Ideals are planted 
high on the spiritual mountains, and long is 
the way, and difficult the ascent. There come 
98 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

times of weariness and places where onward 
progress is difficult, but is that a reason why 
the traveler should weep and profess inherent 
weakness that would prevent him from going 
further ? The higher minded say : "Put away 
fear, put away sorrow, but especially, put away 
weakness." Weakness is the only sin, the only 
tragedy, the only barrier to the attainment of 
spiritual truth. If mistakes are made consider 
them as lessons. Take the result of wrong con- 
duct with resignation. Stand up and declare 
your strength. Attribute your weakness to 
physical limitations, to mental uncertainties, 
and avow the soul to be deathless, fearless and 
omnipotent, to be one with sinless spirit. Keal- 
ize these thoughts in your consciousness, then 
go onward. If the many religions with which 
we come into relation were purveyors of these 
thoughts, if they asked their followers to believe 
in their strength rather than to assert weakness, 
they could be classified as true religions. 

Different by far are the religio-philosophical 
teachings of the Orient, the source of all re- 
ligions. There, belief in reincarnation obtains, 
and a belief in the inherent divinity of man; 
there obtain truths that pertain to spiritual 
99 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

consciousness and development, truths without 
which no spiritual progress can be made. The 
great mystics of the Roman Catholic Church 
and those of other religions arrived at spiritual 
facts by a process of concentration in which 
spiritual truth above dogma was revealed to the 
soul. Their concentration, however, was never 
classified, or formulated into a separate system. 
There were general methods such as contempla- 
tion that served the same purpose as concentra- 
tion, but the psychological value and knowledge 
of the psychological process were unknown. 
Then, too, the Arabic philosophy with its higher 
spiritual conclusions became a part of the re- 
ligious belief of the Franciscan monks, the 
order that brought forth the greatest mystics of 
the West. Thus the higher-minded and the 
more spiritually informed of the West were 
practitioners, consciously or unconsciously, of 
concentrative methods that liberated them from 
dogmatic limitations. 

We have somewhat deviated from the subject 
proper, but only to refer to those conditions 
that blind spiritual vision and impede the at- 
tainment of spiritual and psychic development. 
We have reviewed the misconceptions of con- 
100 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

centration; we have reviewed those psycho- 
pathic phases that inhibit the mind and prevent 
it from asserting its individual power. We 
have, however, in no way explicitly referred 
to many details, and one of these details is 
desire. 

Desire is an aspect of the force of mind, the 
most attractive and influential force in the uni- 
verse. Desire is one of its strongest modes of 
action. Desire for truth develops when the 
mind places itself in relation to the messages of 
truth. The more persistent the desire, the more 
authoritative the revelation of truth. Desire 
added to concentration can wrench any secret 
from nature. The astronomer centers his mind 
on the stars, and they give forth their secret; 
the geologist centers his mind on the inner con- 
struction of the earth, and from this concentra- 
tion we have geology. So with all things. Men 
concentrated their minds on the vast and mean- 
ingful problems of life, and we have Platonism, 
Kantism, Stoicism, Yedantism, and so on. All 
mental discovery and attainment ultimately de- 
pends on the mind in these two aspects — desire 
and concentration. We can readily see that if 
the mind is filled with the desire to know and 
101 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

to realize the hidden spring of its spiritual life, 
it does so. That is the real business of man, the 
struggle for the development of his spiritual 
nature, the unravelling of those conditions that 
blind the vision of the Perfect Self, resident in 
the innermost soul of all. x\ll else is vain and 
ephemeral. Desire and concentration take man 
beyond himself, take him into that intuitive 
realm where he realizes all things relating to 
spiritual wisdom and consciousness. He re- 
alizes his nature, the composing qualities of 
mind and body, the elements of his psychic na- 
ture, the truth regarding soul and Spirit. There 
are many historic instances of the attainment of 
the highest truth, among them being Zoroaster, 
Swedenborg, Plotinus, Plato, Saint Bonaven- 
ture, Al Ghazali, Saint Theresa, and Keshab 
Chunder Sen. 

The most eminent fact about this knowledge 
is that it in incommunicable in its wholeness. 
Those who have realized the truth concerning 
their nature speak in the poor tongue of philos- 
ophy or in the inspired diction of ecstatic song. 
Man can partially appreciate, but never com- 
pletely. To wholly understand*, the soul must 
reach the same spiritual plane that the discov- 
102 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

erers of Self attain. We must, even as they, 
come to the point of discrimination as to what 
really serves in the evolution of the spiritual 
consciousness. This discrimination involves 
firmness of purpose, enthusiasm of heart and 
spiritual ecstasy. 

There are numerous psychological conditions 
associated with ecstasy, that superconscious 
state which concentration and devout medita- 
tion induce, or which comes with the passivity 
of reason and of the whole mind. They have 
been investigated by our leading psychologists 
and found to be super-normal and not abnormal, 
as some people would have men believe. Pro- 
fessor James insists that the concentrative sys- 
tem as it is practiced in India leads to sound- 
ness of mind, soundness of body and to sound- 
ness of character. It is also claimed that if a 
man enter into this superconscious state, this 
ecstatic state, that, even if he is a fool, he comes 
out of it a sage ; if he is a sinner, he becomes a 
saint. We judge causes by their effects. Ef- 
fects are symbols of invisible causative factors. 
We judge a tree by its fruits. In judging the 
concentrative process sages have declared that 
it is highly beneficial, and that it possesses no 
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Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

pathological elements. Mystics themselves have 
attested to these conditions that manifest in con- 
nection with psychic states. They are conditions 
that affect the body as well as the normal con- 
sciousness. Such conditions are rigidity of 
body, fixedness of eyes, suspension of speech and 
respiration, and a general coldness. Saint The- 
resa, one of the most celebrated mystics of the 
Eoman Catholic Church, Saints Bernard of 
Clairvaux and Bonaventure have also explained 
these phenomena in their writings on ecstasy, 
describing the transcendency of the soul over 
the physical form during deep meditation. They 
say that at times when the extremes of ecstasy 
visit the soul it is as motionless as a dead body, 
and that even the heart stops beating. On the 
surface it would seem that these circumstances 
signified the degeneracy of the normal menta- 
psychical state, but profound thinkers on psy- 
chology, those who mould public opinion along 
these lines, have repeatedly attested to the sali- 
ent and psychically sanative factors involved. 
When certain ecstatic conditions resulting from 
concentrating are presented, the body may give 
way under the stress of such expanded emotions 
out of the ordinary psychic field, that tears in- 
104 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

cessantly flow and the face becomes singularly 
radiant, that the lips separate in a fixed smile 
and the general expression is divinely soul-in- 
spiring. 

We understand the possibility of these states 
by comparison with affairs other than spiritual. 
For example, a mathematician may become so 
engrossed with his work as to forget time and 
become insensible to any loud noise or even 
physical hurt. It is the same with the poet and 
the artist, or with others mentally occupied who 
are deeply centered in the performance of their 
work. 

There are certain physical associations, super- 
normal in manifestation, that are associated 
with a strain of high mental effort, irrespective 
of the description. In the instance of philoso- 
phy or abstract thought, this super-normality is 
doubly, trebly increased, and we wonder at the 
majesty of the mind and soul that seem to 
have become so far removed from the sordid 
and commonplace surroundings of earth. Like- 
wise is there exceeding great joy following the 
realization of the ideal in this inferior concen- 
tration on the part of the mathematician, and 
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Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

so on. The purpose gained, the subject is al- 
most beyond himself with happiness. 

This is more vitally true of the ecstatic phil- 
osopher or of the religious seeker after spiritual 
perfection. The reason for this increase of 
super-normal intensity of expression and of this 
super-normal intensity of joy is because the end 
desired and concentrated upon is so much 
higher, transcendent and glorious. The ecstatic 
state is visible in a minor and finite sense when 
sudden joy overcomes the individual upon some 
surprising condition, such as the unexpected 
meeting of lover and beloved. When the ideal 
of love is infinite in adorableness and beauty, 
when it transcends thought and the many limi- 
tations of finite expression, how infinitely more 
is the ecstatic state in intensity and expression ! 
It is said of one great sage who had realized the 
infinite within, the Self of all Being, that his 
soul was translated into such ecstatic love for 
God, that, at times, he could not even bear to 
see the grass trodden upon, a flower plucked, or 
the branch of a tree broken. 

We have stepped one step further than the 
subject proper. We have almost anticipated 
the essence and the sweetness of spiritual bless- 
106 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

edness. We have reached the important conclu- 
sion that ecstasy qualifies for independence of 
soul from body. This implies that the soul 
under certain conditions may leave the physi- 
cal instrument through which it expresses it- 
self, and thus pass beyond the physical plane 
and enter planes otherwise subjective, planes of 
existence of much finer fibre and vibration. It 
involves the thought that mind and soul are in- 
dependent, and it expresses the relative import- 
ance of the former. It stands as the peremp- 
tory answer to materialistic statements. It may 
be objected, how are we aware that the soul 
leaves the body? For the reason of the experi- 
ence of each night during sleep. Were the soul 
in the body, why should it not see, why not 
hear, feel, taste, smell and be generally alive to 
what is going on about it? Because the soul 
is not in the body, that is, not wholly so. There 
is some of the subliminal consciousness remain- 
ing that vitalizes and keeps the organs and cir- 
culation active. The higher consciousness is 
absent. It is on the immediately subjective 
plane. Too much high talk bewilders the very 
simplest facts of existence. At death, when the 
entire consciousness leaves the body, the whole 
107 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

man is translated to another phase of existence. 
Because of lack of self -development the major- 
ity of men have no memory of the variation of 
consciousness and no memory of their experi- 
ences while out of the body. This memory, 
however, may be acquired. 

It is otherwise in the case of ecstasy, or in 
the super-conscious state realized through con- 
centration. The man is cognizant of all that 
takes place. The physical brain is affected and 
impressions registered upon it, so that the phe- 
nomenal consciousness has an adequate memory 
of all that has occurred, otherwise the claims of 
ecstatics and mystics would be purely patho- 
logical in origin and without any spiritual or 
psychical meaning. This truth can only be 
stated. Personal experience must be called into 
service for individual understanding. This is 
the key-note and the entire solution of spiritual 
truth. How can the individual go about to get 
this experience ? By concentration. Short 
practice, daily increased as the development in- 
creases, must be invoked. It takes practice, 
practice, practice. Without it any understand- 
ing of the depths of the soul is superficial. The 
greatest patience must be exercised. Great re- 
.103 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

suits cannot be expected at once, but patience 
conquers everything in the long run. Patience, 
determination and concentration have been the 
building factors in all success. It is equally 
true of individual development to the point of 
psychical evolution and Self-understanding. A 
firm will is the compelling power which will 
disclose and control the internal nature and 
wrest from the soul the knowledge of its essence 
and power. Xo matter for how many minutes 
concentration is carried on, the result will be so 
much of a stride toward the goal, so much to- 
ward realization and Self-understanding. The 
minutes should be determined according to in- 
dividual capability. Adherence to this number 
and the practice should be religiously kept. As 
time broadens the possibilities for concentra- 
tion, as the mind becomes more and more stead- 
ied, the number of minutes should be increased 
from five to ten, from ten to fifteen, until in- 
definite concentration it attained. The practice 
should be performed in a place where the sub- 
ject will not be disturbed, and also at a regular 
time. As an object of concentration, the begin- 
ner may employ any mental fact or series of 
facts that are instructive and pleasing. Let con- 
109 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

centration be centralized as much as possible. 
In a short time, the subject will find that he 
is becoming abstract in meditation. He will 
become motionless. So well is he mentally ad- 
justed that the body takes on the condition of 
the mind, becomes fixed in one position, even 
as the mind is focalized into one mental wave. 
These attitudes of mind continue developing in 
degree as practice is kept up. 

From mere mental facts, let the mind ascend 
to the contemplation of higher metaphysical 
concepts, strains of thought that bear immedi- 
ate relation to the qualities and nature of Self- 
insight and instruction. This is more difficult, 
but by this time the practitioner will have be- 
come aware of the power of persistence and pa- 
tience. Let him grapple with the new diffi- 
culties and he will find himself amply rewarded 
for his struggle. Concentration on inferior 
matters leads to the vivification of the senses, 
to the development of the mind and the psychic 
nature, and thus to their final control. Exalted 
ideals, by their very nature, possess the motive 
force that elevates consciousness into psychic 
realms. They possess the faculty of exciting 
consciousness into menta-psychical states in 
110 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

keeping with the order and exaltation of the 
mental objects concentrated upon. Thus alone 
can any spiritual consciousness be achieved. In 
realizing great thoughts, in experiencing great 
emotions that correspond with great thoughts, 
the mind is in a state where it appreciates the 
value of higher things. In this state the follies 
of the senses, the ambitions of the mind, the 
fluctuations of desire, the instability of instinct- 
ive emotions, pass before it. Unmindful of 
these waverings, steadied and firmly established 
in the knowledge of truth and in the knowledge 
of the spiritual essence of its nature, the soul 
purges itself from all weakness and indecision, 
grows strong in spirit, and against its discrimi- 
nation nothing can prevail. On the highway of 
spiritual life, the individual travels — his own 
guide. Strong is he to overcome the difficulties 
that beset the path, strong to do and to dare. 
Self-knowledge can only be obtained by the per- 
sistence of desire. Instead of through the ex- 
ternal stimulus of a teacher, or of a spiritual 
environment, the soul reaches the goal by stren- 
uous auto-suggestion. The teacher is only a 
great preacher. We ourselves must make an effort. 
We have touched only upon some very vital 
111 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

matters such as the independence of mind from 
matter, such as the soul's innate freedom and 
immortality, all of which require separate study 
and notice. Let it suffice that Self-knowledge 
can be attained, that hope may rise in the hearts 
of those who have not as yet reached the goal, 
but who ardently desire truth, self-perfection 
and spiritual illumination. 

One of the supreme truths of the universe is : 
that like attracts like; like gravitates toward 
like; like is inseparably affiliated with like. 
Mentally and spiritually applied, this signifies 
that where the desire is there also is the object 
of the desire. At first desire and its object are 
two separate and distinct things. The object is 
the Ideal. All depends on the intensity of the 
desire. The greatest and most admirable qual- 
ity of desire and its greatest working power is 
the desire to manifest a greater depth and ex- 
tension of personality. The quest of the Ideal 
is the desire to be. To have is the voice of the 
selfish nature; to be, the voice of the spiritual 
desire. There come moments of physical weari- 
ness when desire weakens in intensity, when it 
is less enthusiastic, less energetic and aspirant. 
These moments pass, however, and, if the soul 
112 



Psychic Values and Spiritual Consciousness 

remains firm while they endure, if it does not 
waver or falter, then is the Path sure-footing 
— the Path that leads to realization and spirit- 
ual consciousness. 

The Path is long, but it is not endless. The 
intensity of one moment's earnest concentration 
and the intense longing to become and to attain 
may take the soul beyond years of slow, normal 
and forced effort. The goal is narrow, but not 
dangerously so. The length and the narrowness 
are conditions that serve as lines determining 
the seeker to gather fresh strength, greater firm- 
ness of purpose and decision, and a greater 
spiritual hold on self. It is within the power 
of the soul to alter the prevailing circumstances 
governing the Path. We have it within our- 
selves to shorten or lengthen it according to our 
progressive or slothful mental attitudes. We 
can become firmly established in spiritual life 
or crowded to the outer circle where lack of 
effort involves spiritual wrecking. Everything 
is relative to patience and endeavor. 

Identifying spiritual effort with the unfold- 
ment of spiritual knowledge, we realize the true 
Self, the true and omnipresent God. 

"He existing, none exists besides." 
113 



MEDITATIONS. 

Thought is attributed to the activity of the 
mind and sense, life to the principle of desire. 
The first step in spiritual development is to 
realize that consciousness alone exists; it exists 
as sensation, and we speak of desire; it exists 
as the physically expressive, and we speak of 
the body. Consciousness, however, embodies the 
entirety of manifestation. Mind, body, desire, 
and so forth, are but terms used to designate 
the variation of conscious expression. 

Manifestation is a vast stream of conscious- 
ness flowing in varied currents of expression, 
and in various channels of manifestation. 

We are half-viewers of the great vital essence 
which manifests as life and consciousness. 
There is nothing but life, all-pervading life. 
At sea one beholds nothing but water. All that 
they can take in in its widest vision is water, 
water, water. 

Form the concept that everywhere about you, 
in the infinitely above, in the infinitely below, 
to the infinitely right and left, permeating your 
114 



Meditations 

heart, mind and soul — is life, endless and eter- 
nal. Let this idea become a mental reality, a 
part and parcel of conscious life. Let it domi- 
nate conduct and social relations. Let it well 
up in the form of emotion. Let the concept and 
its reality be as fervid a reality as the reality 
of personal existence. The spirit of the idea 
is the spirit of the highest truth and of the 
highest reality. The soul is afloat on this limit- 
less, shoreless ocean of existence without name 
and form. Differences arise through the sepa- 
ration of the currents on the surface. 

In fathomless profundities of the eternal sea, 
there is silence and rest. Birth and death are 
the ebb and flow of the tides of the great sea. 
The numberless waves on the surface are the 
numberless individual lives. On the surface 
is disturbance and unrest. In the depths there 
is no manifestation; in the depths is calm and 
unthinkable peace. 

The profundities are not suggestive of non- 
existence. Surface life is ephemeral compared 
with the depth of everlasting life. Existence 
and non-existence are terms not applicable to 
that condition beyond both birth and death, and 
beyond the currents of quality that flow on the 
115 



Meditations 

surface. That condition is nameless and inde- 
scribable. 

The entirety of the surface life depends on 
the larger and all-containing existence of the 
depth. The surface life is individual, composed 
of name and form. It is reality, but only phe- 
nomenal and relative. The life of the surface 
is forever giving the lie to that state which can 
alone be truly called existence. In its clamor- 
ings, the solemn and aeon-silence of the depth 
is unheeded. There are those, however, who 
have deafened their ears to the loud clamorings 
of the surface life and have become sensitive to 
the all-encompassing calm. In this silence is 
the secret of knowledge and power. Of them- 
selves, the existence of the surface of life are 
weak and infantile. They are included in the 
larger existence of the impenetrable under-sea. 
In it they sway and move and have their being. 

Unconsciously or consciously all manifested 
power comes from this deeper life. In recog- 
nizing this the individual properly relates him- 
self to the truth that controls the motion of all 
life. The wave has its name and form in dis- 
tinction to the surrounding water. But it is 
water, every particle and every atom. It is 
116 



Meditations 

water, water, water only. The human soul is a 
wave on the sea of existence. Unconditioned by 
time, name, or form is this ocean before mani- 
festation. During manifestation, name and 
form are evolved, and these, attached to indi- 
vidualized consciousness, cause the existence of 
phenomenal lives. These lives lose sight of the 
primitive unity of life. They fail to realize 
that their existence is through the unfathomable 
sea, nameless and formless. 

Established in individuality they begin the 
evolutionary course through various forms and 
phases of life. Yet phenomenal life is as a flash 
compared with the eternity of eternities, ante- 
cedent to all time, embracing all time. In strict 
comparison the longest duration is less than the 
most inconceivable fraction. 

The delusion exists, and this delusion is the 
binding condition that takes the waves and 
tosses it at random over the surface. Sometimes 
these tossings are high and well-pitched, some- 
times they are low and uneventful. The toss- 
ing is the manifestation of infinite law. The 
dual action of this manifestation comprises the 
principles of good and evil, of light and dark- 
ness, of evolution and dissolution, of birth and 
117 



Meditations 

death, of pleasure and pain, of joy and misery, 
of all the ups and downs from primitive states 
of existence, upward and upward, through end- 
less cyclings to human life, and passing beyond 
human life into god-like existence, beyond and 
beyond — away beyond the rarest and most in- 
tuitive imagination. Duality produces friction, 
but the friction is useful and good. From fric- 
tion fire is produced. From friction the new 
form, the new knowledge and the new power 
arise. Through friction civilization has been 
established. By friction character is polished 
— by the friction of experience. 

All birth is accompanied with pain, but the 
birth is the reward of suffering. Why complain 
of suffering ? Why complain any more than of 
pleasant experiences ? The enjoyment of pleas- 
ure is not the end and goal of all effort. The 
experience of suffering is temporary. Every 
experience makes for character, for better mani- 
festation, for more exalted manifestation, for 
the better development of those latent faculties 
which in their ultimate relation develop the 
sense of the Divine within. 

The spiritual ego on his own plane is con- 
scious of the great arry of spiritual facts that 
118 



Meditations 

give tone and character to the religions element. 
To him truth is patent. It is self-instructive 
and self-illnminating. There is no argument, 
no disquisition, no hesitation and no doubt. All 
is knowledge, for the essence of the thinker is 
knowledge. Knowledge is the background of 
his existence. Knowledge is the goal for which 
he is striving. 

These lives and lives of effort, this suffering 
and woe to which the soul seems destined are 
merely for a greater purpose than physical evo- 
lution, which is, in turn, subject to dissolution. 
The reason manifests in the experience of the 
pairs of opposites whereby the soul learns that 
nothing in them exists that is truly real. Fluc- 
tuation after fluctuation. The soul must turn 
this learning into values of conduct; it must 
discern the real value that lies in the super- 
sensuous soul. 

The mind infers the existence of something 
illimitable beyond the mind. The mind must 
reveal that existence. The mind must speak its 
finiteness to itself. It must turn the searching 
light of truth upon its innermost nature. In 
this searching the redemption of the mind is 
born; the real Ego, the real Man, the essential 
119 



Meditations 

Thinker are discovered. All these shadows that 
flit across the mind, and, ghost-like, haunt and 
befog the vision, will then pale into the nothing- 
ness from which they sprang. 

The light of Self is the all-penetrating light 
that commutes darkness into light. "Whom the 
Self chooses, by him the Self is gained." When 
the conditions are ready and present for the 
transmission of intuitive revelation, the Self, 
the Intelligence within, speaks in loud voice and 
with self-illuminating language. Discrimina- 
tion then gives its message. It crushes out the 
long-lived and self-incriminating, self-destruc- 
tive indiscrimination that conditions the mind 
in ignorance. The veil that inhibits the in- 
spiring and all-saving vision of Self is torn 
asunder. The soul is free. 

When a man awakens from deep sleep he 
does not call the experiences of the dream state 
real. When an experienced desert traveler sees 
a mirage, he is able to recognize it for what it 
is. Existence, in its limited sense, is a dream 
in which we find ourselves alternately this, al- 
ternately that, but in the awakening of the soul 
we give this dream no more reality than we do 
the ordinary dream experience. Compared with 
120 



Meditations 

eternity, the duration of endless lives is as short 
as the second-lasting dreams of sleep. The soul 
awakened is master of fate, is the essence of 
existence, knowledge and bliss. It is divine. 
But it requires time, pre-eminent self-reliance, 
untold effort, patience and perseverance. Every 
effort of our lives, every condition of our con- 
sciousness, every thought, word and act, all are 
leading to that perfect understanding, the end 
of which is life and light eternal. The mind 
must unfasten the bars that for incalculable 
ages have imprisoned it in the prison of the 
flesh, the prison of ignorance, of unbelief, of 
weakness, of impotence and of self-belittlement. 
The mind must realize the glory behind the 
mind, the infinite ocean of existence beyond this 
surface existence, the intelligence beyond 
thought, the infinite light beyond this perpetu- 
ity of darkness, the undivided bliss beyond this 
world of insentiency, the infinite peace beyond 
this continuity of disturbance. It must hear 
the Voice of the Silence even in the turbulence 
of the incoherent universal sound. 



121 



EMPHASIS m EELIGIOK 

Mental indecision is the cause of inversion of 
thought. Heedlessness invites imperfections of 
understanding with their disturbing conse- 
quences. Men hear truth spoken, but it comes 
into one ear and flies out of the other. No 
realization takes place. Half-way methods of 
understanding cause high flights of uncertain 
enthusiasm, keying the nerves to a high degree 
with the inevitable result that the enthusiasm 
wanes and that the motive and conduct which 
enthusiasm arouses fall flat. 

These thoughts have a significant relation to 
the hearing, the understanding and the transla- 
tion of exalted spiritual truth into values of 
character. Men are not in want of truth. That 
is what the Christ told to the brothers of Dives 
in the parable of that rich man. They had 
Moses and the Prophets to guide them in spirit- 
ual ways, but the teachings were meaningless 
to them. They heard and did not hear. They 
might have faithfully attended the synagogue. 
122 



Emphasis in Eeligion 

The activity of the auricular organ might have 
impressed the teachings on their brain, but as 
their minds were far from concentration on 
spiritual truth and far from its practical adap- 
tation to life, the words were lost. It is the 
same to-day. The absorption of spiritual truth 
entirely depends upon a desire to realize it. 
The way and the understanding open to those 
whose minds are burdened with the quest to 
comprehend and practically relate the soul to 
the deeper and spiritual realities that afford 
sanity to effort and meaning to life. 

We have the Vedas, the Tripetakas ; we have 
the teachings of Confucius and Laotse ; we have 
the Koran and the Bible; we hear truth ex- 
pressed in numberless ways. We have every 
ethical and spiritual admonishing that these 
scriptures interpret. Why is it, then, that men 
find themselves in the midst of materialism and 
skepticism and fall prey to their influences ? It 
is because the spiritual word falls upon unheed- 
ing ears and because it has no significance of a 
spiritual character. Truly, there is not an omi- 
nous lack of ethical practice, but ethical prac- 
tice does not of itself essentially contribute to 
the highest order of spiritual life and spiritual 
123 



Emphasis in Religion 

consciousness. Normal ethical standards de- 
velop through the natural tendency to follow 
such actions as best contribute to the well-being 
of the race. Custom and the influence of pub- 
lic opinion confirm this tendency. There is no 
merit in treading the path others have made. 
Consistent conduct develops with a spiritual 
discrimination between what is false and what 
is true, between what is right and what is 
wrong, between what is just and what is unjust. 
This conduct is born of the enlightened and her- 
alds the birth of the individual conscience. The 
individual conscience coexists with the deepest 
and spiritually most practical knowledge. The 
practice of conduct developed through the ap- 
plication of discriminating insight broadens the 
sympathies and thus spiritualizes conscious- 
ness, and the spiritualizing of consciousness is 
alike the goal in the refinement of thought and 
in the refinement of feeling. The most exalted 
spiritual sympathy is complementary to that 
divine knowledge which scatters the clouds of 
ignorance and causes the sun of truth to shine 
in the innermost recesses of the soul. 

It is not a lack of teaching that is felt, but 
a lack of consistent practice. The pearls of 
124 



Emphasis in Keligion 

priceless treasure lie far beneath the surface of 
spiritual teaching. To secure these pearls men 
must labor with as great an earnestness and 
sincerity as they employ in commercial or other 
temporal pursuits. The man of understanding 
realizes that truth cannot be had by merely as- 
senting or dissenting to certain creeds. To 
learn geography one must familiarize himself 
with it. He must discerningly and persever- 
ingly study the geological, the zoological, the 
astronomical and other important branches of 
geography. He must study the distribution of 
life, animal as well as human, that corresponds 
with various climatic and geological changes. 
But it is not alone study that avails. If the 
student desires to enjoy the full benefit of his 
study he will travel extensively, furthering his 
search in a practical way. The same courses 
must be adopted in the understanding and reali- 
zation of spiritual truth. The mind must be 
instructed in those things that will cause it to 
appreciate the rational facts concerning spirit- 
ual realities. When the mind is theoretically 
confirmed, it must put philosophy into practice. 
It must transpose knowledge into conscious 
values. In other words, perception must follow 
125 



Emphasis in Eeligion 

the hearing of truth. Abstract science becomes 
practical when it is associated with everyday 
life. Abstract mathematics becomes applied 
mathematics and so on. In this same sense, 
spiritual knowledge, philosophy must be practi- 
cally realized, if any actual benefit is to be 
gained. It is not in knowing what we should 
do that spiritual consciousness is unfolded and 
the problems of life are solved, but in doing 
what we know we should do. Ideas are inef- 
fectual without motive force. This force is 
supplied by the emotions. It is necessary to 
arouse the emotions if we would bring the ab- 
stract into the concrete. Emotion objectifies 
knowledge. A man may be informed concern- 
ing matters religious, but as he directs his emo- 
tions in the realization of truth he makes his 
theories practical. A man realizes that a pois- 
onous snake is dangerous through his emotions 
rather than through his thought. He avoids it 
because he fears it, and fear, like anger, is one 
of the fundamental tendencies. Through con- 
stant association emotion and thought blend, so 
that in certain instances it cannot be judged 
decidedly whether the emotion or the thought 
is predominant. 

126 



Emphasis in Eeligion 

The surface of the scriptures of the world is 
only their appearance. Spiritual teaching is 
primarily ethical or metaphysical, then it is 
esoteric, effectual, and the external values are 
translated into internal, conscious realities. The 
faculty of spiritual discrimination must be ex- 
ercised, for it is only in this manner that the 
deeper meaning of spiritual teaching is dis- 
cerned. Busied with material interests, identi- 
fying all his forces with economic pursuits, man 
gives no thought to the relations of his soul. 
Occupied with one series of experience he can- 
not hope to realize others. The mind is capa- 
ble of entertaining but one great purpose at a 
given time. One idea and intent is prominent, 
crowding all others from the mental spectrum, 
or giving them but a nominal importance in 
mental life. The focalization of mental force 
on spiritual truth is impossible when the mind's 
attention is diverted in the satisfaction of in- 
numerable disturbing desires and thoughts. The 
natural trend of the mind is toward unevenness 
of thought and thus toward unevenness of effort 
and disposition. This trend must be corrected. 
!N~o purpose can be achieved when the mind 
fluctuates from one point to another, when it 
127 



Emphasis in Religion 

is now swayed by this impulse, now by that de- 
sire, when it is overcome by the paradoxy of 
its own conditions. The prevailing disposition 
of the mind must be controlled. The purpose 
of natural evolution is unity and equilibrium. 
This purpose is also manifested in the develop- 
ment of the mind. Harnessing the energy of 
thought that floods the mind, educating the ideas 
which arouse the emotions, distracting binding 
and weakening strains of thought and realizing 
a control over the mind, the individual is on the 
highway of the realization of the real and the 
true within his soul. 

In one sense, every phase of life is moral. 
Business has a moral value inasmuch as it 
teaches the mind the virtue of concentration, 
and indirectly encourages spontaneity of direc- 
tion and decision of character. It develops the 
practical insight and inspires the mind to quick- 
ness of conclusion. The mental element in 
every commercial pursuit is easily recognized. 
Once we establish the idea that all associations 
throughout time and space are moral, we direct- 
ly perceive the proper relation of every event, 
condition, and circumstance of human life. De- 
sire is the predominating force in the commer- 
128 



Emphasis in Religion 

cial world. Man's desires increase with greater 
complexity of social life. Some of these desires 
represent physical necessities, some comforts, 
some luxuries, some the greater and greater in- 
crease of luxuries and the wealth representing 
luxuries. Others, however, are of lower planes. 
Clothing stores, hardware stores, laundries, 
grocery and shoe stores, breweries, hair-dress- 
ing parlors and every imaginable detail of com- 
mercial life exists through the collective desire 
that supports them. All commercial relations 
are the exteriorization of the clamors of desire. 
The sciences of embryology, histology, ontogeny, 
and so forth, explain how differences in organic 
development arose through the adaptation of 
life to environment. But the environment is 
the externalization of the subconscious and in- 
stinctive desire permeating life and nature, and 
objectified in the evolutionary impulses of all 
animate and inanimate beings. This evolution- 
ary impulse has evolved all the refinements of 
civilization. The development, however, has 
been psychical as well as physical. The shops 
and stores of a city are schools of moral devel- 
opment. Very many of the sturdy and substan- 
tial virtues develop in commercial employment. 
129 



Emphasis in Keligion 

The mind is steadied and directed. It becomes 
efficient, although through a low plane of ex- 
pression. The principal necessity is the 
strengthening of the mind so that it rises su- 
perior to the distractions and wayward impulses 
of instinctive life. It is not important under 
what circumstances the mind improves. What 
is mainly needed is the development of the 
mind. Classical education has no practical 
bearing in the work-a-day world. It seems ap- 
parently useless. But when it is observed that 
the tendencies of the mind have been controlled, 
the weaker being suppressed and the strong 
pronounced, when it is observed that in master- 
ing the difficulties of ancient languages and in 
mastering higher mathematics and the abtruse 
sciences, the mind has developed superiority 
and strength, the advantage of a classical educa- 
tion is immediately recognized. It is not Latin 
or Greek which counts, but the fixed attention, 
the spirit of enthusiasm and effort, the spirit 
of initiative and originality that develop 
through persistence and continuity in mental 
effort. In realizing joy in mental work, in 
overcoming obstacles the mind reaches the he- 
roic plane where it can successfully encounter 
130 



Emphasis in Eeligion 

the battle of life, and the conflict between the 
higher and the lower self. 

Development is the real issue in all the rela- 
tions of life. This development arises through 
fixed attention to the duties that lie before us. 
It arises through the proper conception and ap- 
plication of the conception of these duties. No 
duty is mean considered in a sense spiritual. 
ISTo distinctions are made by the Spirit within. 
The most menial labor is exalted, if it serves to 
develop the mind and heart. The Vedanta phil- 
osophers of India have a system of realization 
which is embodied in non-attachment to the 
fruits of labor, offering them in consecration to 
the Self within. In other words, the Karma 
Yogi works neither for fame, nor self-interest, 
neither for money nor material advantages, but 
because he finds himself confronted with cer- 
tain duties, and fulfils them because the Su- 
preme asks that he do so. 

These arguments support the theory of spirit- 
ual development. Eeligion is practical. It is 
for men and for women, for the poor as well as 
for the rich, for the yellow races as well as the 
Caucasian, for the fortunate as well as the un- 
fortunate. Eealized, it levels all distinction of 
131 



Emphasis in Religion 

fortune, manifesting the spiritual unity in all 
diversity. Turning the minds of men into 
spiritual expression necessitates first of all that 
they discern the practical necessity of religion. 
Man eats bread, because without bread he can- 
not live. He develops his mind, for mind is 
the evolutionary factor in raising civilization 
from lower to higher planes. Acquainted with 
the existence of an immortal principle within 
the soul of his soul, the principle that sustains 
the life of his mind and body, man would be 
fitted with the highest purpose. That purpose 
is already his, only he cannot discern it. He 
believes that the purpose of life centers and is 
expressed in mental and physical evolution, but 
the spirit of all progression is the spirit that 
draws man into a gradual conception that 
neither mind nor body represents the wholeness 
of life's purpose. Ages ago man believed that 
all purpose was embodied in the pursuit and 
satisfaction of bodily enjoyment. Now it is the 
mind which engages his attention. Even as 
there existed a time when man was wholly ab- 
sorbed in bodily pleasures and even as he de- 
veloped out of this limitation into mental ex- 
pression and its consequent development, so in 
132 



Emphasis in Eeligion 

time will lie realize that mind, of itself, is only 
relative to a deeper life and development with- 
out which the life of the mind and the life of 
the body, and the struggles and the experiences 
which man undergoes for their development 
would be useless and meaningless. "Without the 
spirit of truth, life would be characterless. This 
spirit of truth associates with the knowledge of 
spiritual values and realities that comprise the 
existence and immortality of the soul. 

There is not sufficient emphasis laid upon 
words. As an example, we hear long theological 
essays and dissertations on the dogmas of omni- 
presence and omniscience. There is an endless 
rigmarole of words on these subjects. If our 
learned theologians would cease their learned 
prattle and take words in the spirit that they 
were spoken by the Masters, if instead of ran- 
sacking the metaphysical world for abstractions 
they would interpret meanings as they were 
originally and spiritually interpreted, much re- 
ligious sectarianism would be removed. Vol- 
umes have been written on omnipresence and 
omniscience. The teachings of the Masters are 
first of all simple. They have not the meta- 
physical scribbling habit, nor do they split hairs 
133 



Emphasis in Religion 

in scholastic argument. It is not in writing 
books or in preaching custom sermons that a 
minister can hope to educate his people to the 
knowledge of spiritual truth, but in voicing 
already revealed truth by the example of char- 
acter. That is the meaning. TThat a man really 
believes, that will he follow. Convinced of the 
logic and truth of a measure, a man no longer 
weighs it in the balance. The sancity and im- 
mortality of character is in ratio to the level 
on which character is expressed and in concord 
with the ideas that serve as impulses to con- 
duct. All that is left of earthly experience is 
character, the sum-total of all the efforts occu- 
pied in the desire to know, to have and to be. 
If character is expressed through religious pur- 
pose and effort it manifests in the highest 
sphere. It moves within the vibrations of su- 
per sensuous truth and life. It is identified with 
the divinity permeating the universe. The high- 
est elements in human nature are those which 
correspond with the highest and most spiritual 
aspirations. These are comprised in reli- 
gion. 

Religion is not complex. It is simple, pure, 
naturally tending to illuminate personality 
134 



Emphasis in Keligion 

with the fulness and richness of spirit. Ee- 
ligion is not a matter to be discussed, but to be 
realized. It is not confined within narrow 
clauses, but extends below and beyond any sepa- 
rate faith. Above all, religion is essentially in- 
dividual. It has a collective value only as the 
influence of one religious person may extend to 
others. Eealization is strictly individual. True, 
by the grace of the Lord, we may merit His 
assistance; through Him our eyes may be 
opened, but even then, we gain this divine per- 
ception only as we have merited the grace of 
the Supreme. Nothing is given. Everything 
is merited. Such is the Law. None are fa- 
vored. All must ask, seek and strive. All 
must reach the plane of understanding. That 
understanding comes through fervid desire. 
Desire is attained when discrimination has 
shown the mind the advisability of following 
the true course, when it has shown it that the 
narrow is the straight path. Narrow, in the 
sense, that it is difficult, that it demands re- 
nunciation, faith, devotion, loyalty and sincer- 
ity. By raising the heart to the Supreme in 
devotion we become receptive to the inflow of 
divine knowledge and peace. A very good 
135 



Emphasis in Religion 

prayer for light is : "0 thou, who didst wander 
over the face of the earth in the mendicant's 
garb, preaching the Gospel of Truth, help ns 
we beseech thee, that through the mercy of the 
Blessed Lord, we too may become possessed of 
that spirit of true faith, true devotion, true love 
and knowledge that characterized thee." Such 
a prayer may be offered to Those Sons of Light, 
such as the Christ, Who by Their lives and ex- 
ample have enriched and directed the growth 
of humanity at various epochs of its unfold- 
ment. 

Eeligion is not a desert of opinion, a wilder- 
ness of thought, a sea of dogma, but the feeling 
of the presence of God, the knowledge of the 
unity and identity of the individual soul with 
the Supreme, and of the unity and identity of 
the individual soul with the souls of all ani- 
mate and inanimate beings. In purifying the 
mind we render it a fit vessel for receiving the 
precious truth. Desire to know the truth 
cleanses the mind. The practice of virtue puri- 
fies the mind. The spirit of unselfishness which 
is the spirit of the true Self baptizes the soul 
in the waters of Spirit, and it is spiritually 
born of a Son of God. And as a good father 
103 



Emphasis in Religion 

provides for his child, so the Supreme infuses 
divine grace, knowledge and power into the as- 
piring soul. 

Concentration on omnipresence and omnis- 
cience, if properly directed, leads to a sense of 
God's presence. It would show the nothingness 
of this finite self as compared with that One 
Infinite Self. It would teach the highest les- 
son. "In this world of manifoldness, he who 
sees That One running through all; in this 
world of death, he who sees That One Infinite 
Life; he who in this world of insentience and 
ignorance, he who finds That One Light and 
Knowledge, unto him comes eternal peace, unto 
none else, unto none else." In sensing That One 
Infinite Being we realize the Self of selves of 
all individual existence. Meditating on God 
leads the soul to the direct perception of God. 
If one cannot see God, if He must ever remain 
an object of faith, if He is ever imperceptible 
to the sense, what conscious knowledge is there 
concerning Him? "Who has seen Brahma ?" 
If He is indiscernible then religion is mytho- 
logical. Then has nature beguiled man. Then 
the saints and those who strive after spiritual 
perfection are the victims of hallucination. 
137 



Emphasis in Religion 

When they say that they see God, they are the 
victims of their own minds. But religion is 
not hallucination. To religion we must attrib- 
ute the pronounced developing factors of evolu- 
tion. To religion we must accredit the substan- 
tial values of civilization. To religion is due 
the honor of dragging man from the abyss of 
sensuous existence into the pure daylight of 
mental, spirirtual and moral existence. 

Mysticism is incommunicable. The inde- 
scribable bliss of the saints cannot be phrased. 
It is beyond words. Expressing their emotions 
men often say: "Words cannot describe what 
I felt." The only way they can possibly com- 
municate their emotions when these are mysti- 
cal is through the expression of their counte- 
nance. There is pictured what no words can 
describe, what no poet could pen, what no 
painter could color, what no sculptor could 
mould. Eor the bliss of ecstasy men have re- 
nounced their family ties, they have given up 
the advantages of worldly life, they have sacri- 
ficed life and happiness, they have given up 
their all in all. They have made this supreme 
renunciation with a joyous spirit. What to 
them were all the treasures of a Croesus in com- 
138 



Emphasis in Religion 

parison with the sweet, ineffable bliss of spirit- 
ual communion? 

We fail because we fall. We are on the 
heights. Suddenly a tempting thought, a pass- 
ing desire seizes us unawares and we fall from 
the dizzy height of spiritual perfection into the 
mire of average existence. But the fall is a 
lesson. Aware of the danger of certain environ- 
ment, knowing the disastrous consequences fol- 
lowing in the wake of certain associations, ac- 
quainted with the spiritual distress certain cir- 
cumstances arouse, we avoid them. A great 
teacher said: "I am glad that I have done 
good; I am glad that I have made mistakes." 
It is through the contrast between opposite^ 
that the third factor is valued. The third fac- 
tor in spiritual relationships is the direct vision 
of truth, the immediate perception of the divine 
within, the intuitive process that unfolds that 
light and knowledge which are alone saving and 
redeeming. 

Character is the means ; character is the goal. 
Character and its influence possess far more 
reaching results than the reading of a hundred 
books. The history of a great reformer is more 
inspirational than the logic of his arguments. 
139 



Emphasis in Religion 

His life inspires ; his logic may be wrong. He 
may be inconsistent, yet he is sincere. It is his 
sincerity and the force of his sincerity that are 
of consequence. It is his exaltation of purpose 
which interests. One great thought conceived 
in the gloom of a cave will reach forth and give 
light, life and force to the whole human race. 
He who concentrates his mind upon the dogma 
of omnipresence, or that of omniscience, will 
have his entire character transformed. It will 
become god-like, unconquerably pure and per- 
fect. Centering the mind upon the lotus of the 
heart and seeing in the innermost heart That 
Effulgent One Whose Light of Life and Whose 
Presence fills infinite space, the soul rises into 
the spacious regions of truth. Entranced with 
the vision of That Effulgent One, it merges into 
His nature, becoming one with All and united 
with the nature of the World-Soul. "Thou art 
my father; thou art my mother; thou art my 
friend; thou art my companion; thou art my 
wisdom ; thou art my strength ; thou art my all 
in all; thou art my one Lord." Conscious of 
the real self, the soul asserts: "I never had 
ignorance, nor fear; I have had neither this 
nor that. The disturbances of the mind cause 
140 



Emphasis in Eeligion 

the infinite variation of mind waves. The soul 
identified itself with these forms of body and 
these states of mind. But in reality the soul 
is Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute and 
Bliss Absolute." 

Placing emphasis on words, signifies that 
they have conscious values and are conscious 
forces for the uplifting of the soul and for the 
proper understanding of spiritual verities. In 
reference to words teaching Self-knowledge, too 
great an amount of emphasis cannot be placed 
on them. "That Self is first to be heard, then 
meditated upon and then realized," say the 
Vedas. We must hear, then try and absorb 
what we have heard. Then only do we realize 
what is meant. Then truth dawns upon con- 
sciousness. 

The Self-knower understands why emphasis 
must be laid on words. We lay stress on any- 
thing when we are interested in it, when it 
appeals to us. Our mind is in immediate rela- 
tion to what we are hearing and is intensely 
concentrated thereon. There arises an appro- 
priate emotional response. Similarly is this the 
case with spiritual statement. We can only ap- 
preciate the value of teaching concerning the 
141 



Emphasis in Beligion 

soul when we appreciate the momentous impli- 
cations its existence represents. Once men 
know that the soul is, their interest is highly 
posited. They would gladly call their most 
interested attention to service. The teaching 
would reach them in and through themselves. 
It would make deep channels in the brain. The 
grooving of new channels is always accompa- 
nied with great difficulty. It is hard for the 
mind to center itself on new conditions. This 
difficulty is overcome, though, when the new 
conditions present sufficiently interesting 
phases. We realize the necessity of becoming 
interested and of applying the new conditions 
to conduct. The only essential is that the mind 
understand the value to be gained by associat- 
ing itself with concentrative effort. In regard 
to spiritual matters, the teacher who by his in- 
fluence can make men realize the existence of 
soul will cause them to interest themselves in 
its condition and progress, to listen to truth and 
to apply it. They will place emphasis on words 
because they understand the necessity of so do- 
ing. Judging from the results obtained by the 
churches at the present time, the fact that they 
are experiencing a marked declension in follow- 
142 



EmpEasia in Religion 

ing, that orthodox churches are becoming little 
more than ethical societies, and that practical 
materialism is swaying the public mind, we 
find little communication of spiritual influence 
from clergymen to laymen and accordingly lit- 
tle emphasis placed on the original meaning of 
the words of the Great Christ as written in the 
Christian Gospels. 



143 



"STRENGTH." 

On the citadel of Success the pennant 
"Strength!" waves. 

It is the watchword of the undefeated. 

It is the magic-word of those who do and 
dare. 

On spiritual heights a heroic figure stands. 

It is "Strength !" the God of those who toil. 

Of those who hrook no obstacles. 

Strength to the weakling! Strength to the 
hesitating! Strength to the self -underrating ! 

Through practice the athlete becomes power- 
ful. Through practice do the weak of body be- 
come athletes. Through strength one wrests 
from nature the power to live. 

The Romans and the Greeks called those acts 
virtuous which manifested strength, both moral 
and physical. In strength they found the root 
of progress. In strength they found that inde- 
pendence of spirit that put into their power and 
control the greatest nations of the ancient world. 

Strength is first of virtues; weakness, the 
original sin. The attitude of mind toward life 
144 



"Strength" 

determines the experiences men receive from 
life. If they expect nothing, they receive noth- 
ing. If they demand their rights, they obtain 
them. 

The world is masked. Tear the horrible mask 
and the world is your servant. The world is 
cruel and harsh only as men's ignorance keeps 
them from asserting themselves. As long as 
men possess the tendency to cringe, they will 
find tyrannies of state and tyrannies of custom. 

The criticism of the world is bitter only to 
those who cannot compel room for their ideas. 
The weak of will merit the contempt of the 
world. But the strong are rulers of the world. 
Before their dictatorial souls the world bows. 

Fear is the monster which deters men from 
initiative. Fear is the death-blow to many 
ideals that, because of its terrorsome aspect, do 
not come into the light of day. Fear is the 
vice which throttles virtue and genius — fear of 
the opinion of others. 

'No matter how dismal the outlook, the soul 
is the master of its destiny. It can change the 
currents of expression by changing its attitude 
toward life. As long as the mind does not sink 
into gloom, hope is not lost; opportunity still 
145 



"Strength" 

awaits seizure; the tides have not turned for 
the worse. Courage breeds optimism, and 
optimism is the elixir of life. Who quaffs the 
chalice of divine strength is free from physical 
and mental affliction. 

Ponce de Leon sought the Fountain of 
Youth. Across the unknown wastes of the At- 
lantic he sailed in vain search. The Fountain 
of Youth is in the strength to keep the mind 
well-poised, to maintain presence of mind and 
equilibrium of soul when the tempest of op- 
pression and misfortune is strongest. In that 
strength the body and mind grow strong. Old 
age does not come on. The man of strength is 
ever young. 

"A character is formed in the rush of the 
world," said Schiller. To keep himself from 
being crushed one must stand up in strength. 
The law is relentless; he who is borne to the 
ground is stampeded by the oncomers. He who 
carries himself erect, firm in gait, strong in will, 
reaches the end of life, which is the realization 
of his purpose. 

The coward is aggravated to fight when 
cornered, or when others, who see him in strug- 
gle, jibe him to the fray when his courage 
146 



"Strength" 

wanes. Whosoever lacks strength should seek 
a motive that is a living force, impelling the 
virtue of strength. Moral strength is rare. It 
is easy to physically assert strength, when goad- 
ed on by apparent injustice. But the real hero 
is he who has the strength of his convictions; 
he is the hero who can say "ISTo" when impulses 
press in the tendency to wrong conduct. 

Power and strength to him who secures his 
purpose ! Strength was the nectar of the Gods 
that made their bodies adamantine in build, and 
their minds imperative. The confident man an- 
ticipates success by his attitude. He never dis- 
trusts the outcome of his efforts. If they fail, 
he does not waste his time in mourning the loss. 
He studies the conditions which made him fail. 
He never questions his strength. Of that he is 
assured. He observes his mistakes with the 
intention of winning his end by avoiding them. 

Strength pounds barriers to pieces. Sure- 
footed, it climbs the mountain of life, overleap- 
ing chasms of doubt and hesitation into which 
the weaklings of life fall. The strong man 
carries the heavy burden of life's responsibili- 
ties with the same whole-heartedness with which 
he enjoys his moments of pleasure. 
147 



"Strength" 

The mind should never be disturbed. The 
greatest victory over self, self-mastery and the 
many joys that accrue to it manifest as the re- 
sult of a pleasant attitude. The Hindoos con- 
ceive the creative principle of nature as the Di- 
vine Mother. This universe is Her child with 
whom She is playing hide and seek. The Mother 
closes her eyes and the world loses sight of Her. 
She opens them and some see Her. This play- 
ing continues throughout eternity. But it is 
only play. 

If men have the strength to take this posi- 
tion, they are playing with life and death, with 
misery and pleasure, with poverty and wealth, 
with sickness and health, with good and evil, 
and so forth. Misery does not last; joy does 
not last. Both vanish. The play alone con- 
tinues. Life is change, and we are changing 
places in the play accordingly as we know more 
concerning it. When we have learned the game, 
we touch the Mother, and remain with Her in 
perpetual bliss. 

This is spiritual strength, the climax of all 

strength. The spiritual giant has mastered the 

elements of his nature. He stretches forth his 

hands, and evil and ignorance, the two worst 

148 



"Strength" 



s l 



foes of the soul, the foes that bind its will, dis- 
perse into the phantom nature from which they 
arose. His persistent strength and the strength 
of his persistent demand have gained him the 
greatest bliss, a knowledge of Self, the supreme 
joy of Self-revelation. 

Whosoever starts out in life with a weak pur- 
pose dies by his own inefficiency. Aimlessly 
wandering, he is the victim of his own weak- 
nesses which rob him of his talents of mind and 
heart. Taking to mind the examples of the men 
who have performed great deeds, let him arouse 
himself from the lethargy of soul into which he 
has fallen. 

Fear is a fundamental instinct. Weakness 
develops from fear. To crush out weakness and 
to liberate the soul from the thraldom of things 
which weakness induces, fear must be eradi- 
cated. That is achieved through discrimination 
with regard to the nature of the conditions that 
cause fear. Frequently it will be discovered 
that the motives of fear are phantom, having 
reality only as the mind colors them with cer- 
tain fear-inspiring qualities. Apart from these 
qualities transposed upon passing occurrences, 
fear does not exist. 

149 



"Strength" 

It requires spiritual knowledge, however, to 
place the mind into the position to face the con- 
ditions of fear intrepidly. Convinced of the 
spiritual existence of the soul and of its immor- 
tality, the mind is less anxious concerning the 
things that hefall the hody. The body comes 
and goes, but the soul remains. Nothing can 
disturb the soul. Seated in strength, it rises 
Phoenix-like after the perishing of bodies, as- 
suming new forms to carry out its purposes. 

The weak must learn the lesson of strength, 
its positive necessity in the realization of any 
ideal. Experience shows that there is nothing 
of which the soul need stand in fear. "Birth- 
less, deathless and changeless," the soul fear- 
lessly faces all circumstances, for its back- 
ground is Strength Infinite. 



150 



THE UNITY OF LIFE. 

The ideal of the unity of all life, of the ulti- 
mate evolutionary origin and goal of all beings, 
is highly emphasized by Thomas Traherne, a 
profound mystic of the seventeenth century. In 
his writings appear the following ecstatic words 
he expressed in realizing the nature of Him 
who is the "I" of all: 

"Miraculous are the effects of Divine Wis- 
dom. He loveth everyone, maketh everyone in- 
finitely happy and is infinitely happy in every- 
one. He giveth all the world to me, He giveth 
it to everyone in giving it to all, and giveth it 
wholly to me in giving it to everyone for every- 
one's sake. He is infinitely happy in everyone ; 
as many times, therefore, as there are happy 
persons He is infinitely happy. Everyone is 
infinitely happy in everyone, everyone, there- 
fore, is as many times infinitely happy as there 
are happy persons. He is infinitely happy 
above all their happiness in comprehending all. 
And I, comprehending His and theirs, am, Oh, 
how happy !" 

151 



The Unity of Life. 

"Here is love, here is a kingdom. Where all 
are knit in infinite unity all are happy in each 
other. All are like deities. Everyone the end 
of all things, everyone supreme, everyone a 
treasure, and a joy of all, and everyone most 
infinitely delighted in being so. All things are 
ever joys for everyone's sake, and infinitely 
richer to everyone for the sake of all. The same 
thing is multiplied by being enjoyed. And He 
that is greatest is most by treasure. This is the 
effect of making images. And by all their love 
is every image exalted. Comprehending in His 
nature all angels, all cherubims, all seraphims, 
all worlds, all creatures, we are blessed for- 
ever." 

Had the name of the mystic not been attached 
to this outburst of spiritual intuition and emo- 
tion, the reader might imagine it written by 
some divinely inspired, enthusiastic disciple of 
the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, so far- 
reaching is the metaphysical idea involved, so 
all-inclusive is it, and so far is it beyond the 
ordinary Western dogmatism. 

It is a canticle naturally expressed, even as a 
jar, filled with its contents, naturally overflows. 
It is the expression of deeply felt emotion. By 
152 



The Unity of Life 

the supreme "Divine Wisdom," he has imper- 
sonated it far beyond its customary meaning. 
He speaks of it as embracing Deity itself. This 
wisdom is the knowledge of the real Self, the 
Divine Ego. The idea conveys the end of such 
knowledge. 

This might infer that Self-knowledge leads 
to the atrophy of the emotions, that, after long 
continued discrimination between those things 
which man believed to be Self and the truly and 
real Self, he would be a vast intellect, one whose 
sole exclamation would be : "I am." But Tra- 
herne and his life tell us different, and so do 
the mystics and ecstatics of all ages. 



153 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF REALITY. 

The spider is caught within its own net Re- 

ty ! Does not reason momentarily and ex- 
plicitly tell ns that the senses are, in their very 
nature, deceptive? 

Of one thing rest assnred; if true real::" is 
to be conceded to the evanescent then we are 
materialists. Those who have not seen the 
Truth are materialists. 

I ralism is as mvthical as realism. When we 
take the axe of spiritual discrimination and 
split the Wheel, we realise. 

And realization — how can it be described ? 
Language is inadequate. Thought is con- 
ditioned. Peeling is everything. When we can 
feel we are one with Truth. Otherwise we are 
still ensnared in Samsara, in this ocean of mind 
and matter. 

~r tell our emotions? Wo, we feel 
them. The voice is smothered. Thought can- 
not reach the depth of feeling. 

Thought is like water; feeling is like solid 
rock 

15± 



MASKS. 

Whosoever is false to what he believes, wears 
a mask. He is a hypocrite. Whosoever falsi- 
fies his life in betraying his soul into the hands 
of his own insincerity is a liar to the Self within 
him. 

The light of the Self penetrates the inmost 
thoughts of a man, and his is indeed a terrible 
fate who wilfully violates his better knowledge 
through opposing conduct. 

The man who is not loyal to the interests rep- 
resented in his social and moral duties wears a 
mask through which he steals the treasures of 
life from others, for who fails to perform his 
duty is robbing the world of his service. He is 
a thief. 

It is passing strange how men, reared in the 
conception that certain practices are against all 
social ethics, can mock their souls and their 
fellow-men in attending to the conventionalities 
and respectabilities for pretense while they soil 
their souls with the misery they cause others- 
through nefarious business or social practices. 
155 



Masks 

The man who violently confronts the truth 
within him by giving it the lie in his conduct 
does not or cannot appreciate the terrible catas- 
trophe he is preparing for himself, for to cast 
aside the higher callings and possibilities of 
personality is to betray one's self into the dark- 
est fate — the fate of retrogression. 

They who wear masks are not as dangerous 
to society as to themselves. Unawares they plan 
their spiritual death while they imagine they 
are tending to their best welfare. 



156 



THE VALUE IHST LIEE. 

The value in life is growth. With growth 
there is a certain exhilaration that encourages 
further research into the great problem for 
which man exists. The mind is the child of 
the soul and through the association of the 
former with the multiform phases of existence 
the soul expands into hitherto unknown realms 
of knowledge and power. It is knowledge for 
which man is striving. The meaning of exist- 
ence centers in the solution of the problem "to 
know." Each mind is conditioned in power and 
expression by the limitations of its knowledge. 
Each mind is unconditioned in so far as it has 
rent the veil of ignorance and developed the 
faculty of understanding. The experiences of 
life serve in the transformation of the mind. 
Erom lower it rises to higher levels. Erom 
ignorance of certain conditions it rises to un- 
derstanding them through experience. Man 
comes into relations with phenomena. Eirst he 
observes them. Eailing to use discrimination 
157 



The Value in Life 

as to their character and as to the consequences 
of their relation to him he either avoids them, 
sensing pain, or follows them, sensing pleasure. 
Repeated connection with conditions determines 
the mental attitude. The mind, subject to 
change, experiences new attitudes toward the 
same circumstances. Where first there may have 
been an appeal, where first the conditions 
seemed attractive and desirable, they later as- 
sume negative and undesirable proportions. It 
is not a change in the external, but in the in- 
ternal. It is the mind which lays emphasis, im- 
portance and significance upon the objects of its 
relations. It is the mind which rates the values 
in experience, determining their usefulness or 
unusefulness. The mind is the arbiter between 
itself and experiences. As the mind increases 
in knowledge, as it becomes more and more re- 
lated to phenomena, its perspective and percep- 
tion enlarge. It absorbs a greater number and 
a greater variety of outer impressions trans- 
forming them into new conscious values. With 
the growth of the mind its spirit of discrimina- 
tion is developed. 

The main factor in all mental evolution is 
discrimination. Through contrast discrimina- 
158 



The Value in Life 

tion is born. It is born through recognition by 
the mind of differences in outer circumstances. 
Every moment the mind experiences new sets 
of sensations. These sensations color the men- 
tal spectrum, biasing it either in one direction 
or another. It is without doubt that the mind 
is subject to physical inharmonies. For this 
reason the body must be appreciated. Its serv- 
ice to the mind must be recognized. The body 
is purified by external methods, the mind by in- 
ternal. But the physical precedes the mental in 
the order of purification. Therefore, it be- 
hooves the individual to establish sanity of 
body. "A sound mind in a sound body," was 
the motto followed in the education of the an- 
cient Greeks. They fully understood the rela- 
tion of the mind to the body and the relation of 
the body to the mind. Though the soul is ulti- 
mately free from the uncertainties and inequali- 
ties of the physical, it is not so while it identi- 
fies itself with the sensual desires of the body. 
The mind must correct the wanderings of the 
senses. It must instruct itself concerning the 
important need of arranging the vibrations of 
the body in such a manner that they best serve 
the interest of the soul. If the body is subject 
159 



The Value in Life 

to serious infirmities the mind is affected. 
When the instruments of the soul are disturbed 
they inhibit the proper flow of life and knowl- 
edge from the Source of Omnipresence and 
Omniscience. 



160 



OUK KELATIOSTS TO OTHEES. 

As long as human beings come into close con- 
tact they are bound to differ both by reason of 
idiosyncracies of temperament and by reason 
of psychic differences in relations to environ- 
ment. 

Men shovel the snow from the paths about 
their houses and places of business. They 
shovel away that which is useless and obstruct- 
ive. This is a symbol to be realized in our per- 
sonal lives. You cannot get along with another 
unless you shovel the factors from the house of 
your mind and disposition that cause wide dif- 
ferences between the former and yourself. You 
have to take people as they come without get- 
ting out of sorts. 

You are first the lord of your mind. Nothing 
disturbs it, save as weakness and impatience in- 
vite trouble. All are subject to unreasonable 
and unjustifiable moods — and moods are always 
a picture of psychic disturbances beneath the 
conscious spectrum. To give way to a mood 
161 



Our Relations to Others 

is to strengthen the tendency to unbalancement 
of mind. A mood is a devil. Knife it with the 
will to be superior to the whims of the animal 
within. A mood is a psychic distemper and is 
as real as a hurt to the body. 

Change environment when moods come. If 
you can do nothing else, lock yourself up. You 
are psychically deranged and, from a vibration 
point of view, you are dangerous. 

You realize that the greatest control is the 
control over the feelings that toss the uncon- 
trolled personality to the shores of chance and 
sorrow. It is strange from the surface vision. 
A mood is something past normal consciousness 
in origin. But the will can exclude it by posi- 
tiveness, if it is unwelcome. If the will gives 
way through self -sympathy, one more link in 
the chain of purely reflex life is riveted. 

Why should the moods of others concern you, 
so long as you radiate good from your own life ? 
The strength of the rush of your own mind will 
crush the vibrations that come to harm you. 
Fire will not burn water — the two are chemi- 
cally opposite, having no absolute effect on each 
other. So, if you predestine the character of the 
mind by habit, if you pre-strengthen it against 
162 



Our Eelations to Others 

all stray connections, you are never influenced 
by others. Your aura is chemically self-cen- 
tered and diametrically opposed to the weak- 
ness either of the thought of evil or of uncon- 
trolled minds. 

The sun affects the waters of the earth only 
in a relative manner. It may draw them into 
vapors, but it returns them in the form of snow 
and rain. So, though others may and do influ- 
ence your mind, they can make no radical 
change, if you are within the strength of your 
self-conquered soul. 

We have no responsibilities to others. "No 
one has any responsibility to another. The only 
responsibility is to one's self. To thine own 
self be true; then it follows that you are true 
to all men. If your responsibility to yourself 
includes responsibility to others, unselfishly per- 
form the duty to yourself. Then right will 
come. 

~No one should make a martyr of himself. It 
is not in suffering that heroes are born, but in 
control. Your responsibility to others ceases 
when you have unselfishly performed your duty. 
Let not emotion lead you astray into false reas- 
oning and into false purposes. 
163 



Our Relations to Others 

It is objected that sometimes it is foolish to 
be unselfish, that unselfishness often has a 
source in sentimentality. Never in the sight of 
the individual conscience. Foolishness concerns 
itself and concurs with wrong motive. That 
follows because of inconsistency to carry out 
what is known to be true. 

Our duties to others flood each motion of our 
life. But it is all summed in standing erect as 
a rock which allows the waves to beat idly 
against it. You should be a rock in this social 
sea. Let whims and temperaments and per- 
sonalities touch your soul with indifference. 
Good alone should respond, and in good is serv- 
ice. You are a servant of Self, and each over- 
coming is a lifting of the veil. 

We must remember that selfishness is nature. 
In feeling for others — for personalities — often 
the pall of selfishness covers the otherwise bright 
surface of action. We want to benefit others, 
but ourselves are frequently the main issue. 
We will make money and distribute it to the 
poor only when we have so much that what we 
give is a nothingness, a thing unmissed and lost 
without thought. So in life we give of our per- 
sonality only those things which we want to; 
164 



Our Eelations to Others 

and, if we fail to get what we in turn are 
ing, we soon lose our loving attitudes. 

Sacrifice, renunciation; these are the tests of 
life. 

Experience is good, even when it is negative. 
We meet people to gain experience and to learn 
a new fact, or an old one more intensely. 
Apathy is a mood. You should be so strong that 
hell itself could not disturb your calm. 

Apathy is associated with the spirit of death 
or of rebellion. Calm is the smile of the 
Buddha. 

Learn how to undermine limitations. It is 
the higher nature that determines. It is the 
urge evolutionary. 



165 



POSSIBILITIES. 

One cannot too emphatically pronounce the 
possibilities within the soul. Egotism, in truth, 
is despicable, but not respectability. Where, if 
not from your own spirit, will you receive sym- 
pathy and strength ? This reception is inspira- 
tion, or the Spirit of God within, prompting to 
the higher, the holier and purer. 

It is singular that men of apparently broad 
sympathies should die in their live bodies. Eor 
when the soul responds to nothing, it dies to the 
plane of manifestation while the body lives. 

The courage of one's convictions should en- 
courage the possibilities for action. When a 
man sleeps his faculties are latent. So many 
men sleep by reason of enforced dormant facul- 
ties through indolence. 

There is something loathsome in corruption; 
there is something repulsive in stagnation. 
When the mind of a man dies through the atro- 
phy of his possibilities there is something dead 
and repulsive concerning him. 

Once it has started, fire feeds through its 
1C6 



Possibilities 

flames. Mind is supported by mind, once it has 
been aroused. The Divine Promethean Spark 
enlivens the dying fire of the soul. The fuel of 
the mind is its potential 

The pyramids of Egypt symbolize not alone 
human energy, but spiritual truth. So the 
pyramids of the mind stand not alone as trib- 
utes of praise to the energy of the artisan, but 
as live images of spiritual achievement. The 
tangible evidence of greatness is its external ap- 
plication. It manifests in fervid enthusiasm 
and in great deeds. 

The strength of a Csesarian character is com- 
plex, the ratio of difference in evolution in com- 
parison with the career and with the greatness 
of career of a Dolabella or other minor man. 
Therefore, the man who sinks his heart in the 
fleshpot of his senses and desire is a swine, 
penned in a sty of personally pressed circum- 
stance. 

The dagger of a Cassius or a Brutus kills the 
Caesar of the spirit. These are the rebellious, 
the licentious and to-be-heard claimants of 
bodily gratification. 

The relationship of the body should be as the 
relationship between an Atticus and a Cicero. 
167 



Possibilities 

That is, the Atticus of the body should serve 
as the negative instrument through which the 
eloquence of the spiritual Cicero can prolifically 
manifest. 

In war with the Cimbri, Marius utilized the 
forces of the concentrated Roman army to put 
the barbarians beyond the Alps. Concentrated 
desire for spiritual illumination is the potent 
commander driving back the barbarians of 
thought, evil and low, beyond the Alps of men- 
tal activity. 

Hannibal was able to throw his spear across 
the walls of Rome, because the waning spirit of 
Eoman courage made him come so near. The 
forces of evil vibrations attack the natural bar- 
riers of prevention of evil of the mind by the 
latter retreating from the strength of the spirit- 
ual Self. 

The mind is the Catiline of the estate of the 
soul if it ambitiously strives to become the auto- 
crat and to overthrow the paternal authority of 
Self. 

¥uma Pompilius, that divine law-giver of 
the Romans, saw the symbolism of spiritual 
facts and of spiritual influence and thus insti- 
tuted the religious rites and the religious spirit 
168 



Possibilities 

that encouraged the Stoic development of Ro- 
man soul-life. Self is the Numa Pompilius, 
giving the personal ray the teachings of relig- 
ious and of spiritual life. 

The strength of a spiritual position is the 
test of martyrdom, not alone the martyrdom of 
body, but the martyrdom of desire and the mar- 
tyrdom of social ostracism. The Christian 
Martyrs of the empire bear testimony to the 
strength of religious convictions. That strength 
becomes personalized in each and every soul 
that strives for Truth and realizes it. 



THE INFINITE. 

Nameless and formless the Spirit within 
shines forth, unconditioned and everlasting. 
What name is befitting the soul? How shall 
Infinite Effulgence be manifested? Too great 
a light blinds the senses. Too great a truth is 
too exhilarating for the student. The bound- 
less, infinite Sentience, incomprehensibly di- 
mensioned in Being and Intelligence, rests Un- 
seen and Unthinkable in the shore of His Own 
omnipresent and superomnipresent conscious- 
ness. 

A light, small and feeble, is visible. To 
greater and greater degrees expands the possi- 
bility of vision. But visionless to mortal sight 
is He Who breathes in all Beings. 

Firmly rooted in Impenetrable Bliss, the 
Most Excellent and Most High, is aware and 
not aware of the accidents in time and in space. 

The personality of God is the principle of 
the universe, but the principle of God is the 
principle of the Unimaginable, and Unknow- 
able, the Absolute, the Unproducing, the 
170 



The Infinite 

Dreamless, the Inexhaustible, the Sourceless 
One. 

His principle manifests in Truth portrayed 
in various ethical and religious presentations. 
His principle manifests as the object of love 
and as the enthusiasm of the striving soul. His 
principle is personalized in the souls of those 
who are patient with their destiny, seeking 
naught. His principle is discerned in the self- 
sacrificing, worldless souls. His principle 
manifests in the tireless seeker after truth, and, 
above all, in persevering, ever-enthusiastic, un- 
wearying and undying love of the devotee. 

Who shall proclaim the Tat Tvam Asi (Thou 
art That) unless the Tat Tvam Asi is to him a 
reality deeper than personal consciousness? 
Who shall say, "I am God," unless in him 
Divinity and Godhead manifests in purity of 
thought and in universal, all-embracing sym- 
pathy ? 

The Truth, that is, the Spirit of Truth, is 
stationary, deathless and immutable. The va- 
rious visions of Truth change as the needs of 
the soul become greater and as the soul ascends 
into higher regions of spirituality. 

And the Truth is God. 
171 



THE RISE OF THE PROEOUNDER 
EMOTIONS. 

The emotions are the foundation of being. 
Resurrecting them from their impersonal strata 
one brings them into the glow of conscious life. 

Religion, or rather the religious instinct, is 
fundamental. It is as deep as the functional 
instincts. It is difficult to fully comprehend 
the reality of feelings. Do not go to the psy- 
chologist. We are a study to ourselves. When 
we are overwhelmed with the spiritual emotions, 
something makes us unmindful. I might even 
say unconscious of the body. 

Now, it is in this experience that the spirit 
within us expands out of normal and strictly 
personal into the superior consciousness that 
eventually manifests in the cognition of the 
divinity within. 

It is not a rapid or spontaneous growth and 
yet it may be. It is the growth of a conscious- 
ness, for consciousness develops as any other 
phenomenon. The point, however, is never 
realized. If you realized the point as a distinc- 
172 



The Kise of the Profounder Emotions 

tion between it and the road traveled, we have 
not reached it. We still realize difference. 
When we reach that point we do not realize it 
as a state of perfection. We are conscious of 
no relative growth or of any relative life. 

The God is unconscious of the world. Brah- 
man is Self-contained. When we know, the 
state implies that something has been acquired. 
The state of Brahman is unacquired. It is. 
It does not grow or become. It never was finite. 
The very fact of Brahman and the only fact to 
be predicted is Isness. 

The wave is the wave. The ocean is the 
ocean. As long as the wave, even in the slight- 
est degree, maintains the illusion of self-exist- 
ence, it is a wave. No matter, even if it speaks 
of finiteness and recognizes the Spirit of the 
Infinite Waters as the background of its exist- 
ence. It is not absorbed. Absorption. Om 
Mani Padme Hum is the prayer which, trans- 
lated, means: "Oh, the Jewel in the Lotus." 
The Lotus is the soul; the Jewel is the Spirit 
of God. The wave merges its phenomenal ap- 
pearance, but the Ocean alone exists. 

Can you conceive the ocean removed and the 
wave still existing in separate form? Then, it 
173 



The Eise of the Profounder Emotions 

is the Ocean alone which exists. The wave is 
the Ocean, not a part. It is the waters of the 
Ocean ; it is the Ocean. It is the motion of the 
Ocean. It is of the spirit and of the essence 
of the Ocean. It is the Ocean conditioned into 
wave expression. If we put on our garments do 
ive change because of their appearance? The 
ocean clothes itself with waves. 

But even the clothing by which the waves 
have form — even they — are of the Highest. To 
come to practical science, or rather to voice the 
Upanishads: a Even threads are Brahman. 
The thread is composed of still finer particles, 
these of still finer, these of the unimpressible, 
omnipresent ether." 

All forms are composed of one substance 
which is the form of Brahman. And yet we 
must conceive the form of Brahman as infi- 
nitely distinct from the physical interpretation 
of substance. The table on which one may 
write, reduced to its component elements, is far 
different from the solid we imagine. So, Brah- 
man, though the universe is Its form, is utterly 
and incomprehensibly distinct from matter or 
thought, which is only rarified matter. 

It is not necessary to crack the brain over 
174 



The Rise of the Profounder Emotions 

these matters. The soul of man knows apart 
from the reason. The mind within the mind 
makes us comprehend. Trust its whisperings, 
but, above all, we must trust our feelings. Feel- 
ings are deeper than ideas. 

Some say that feelings are dangerous guides. 
Let them distinguish between the feverish feel- 
ings of passion and the intuitions of Self and 
their corresponding emotions. 

We must make unselfishness the test of our 
feelings. Then we shall know. 



175 



THE SPIEIT OF WOMANHOOD. 

The relationships between people are first of 
all subconscious. The conscious relationship is 
the manifestation of the subconscious affinity 
and spiritual proximity. There are instances 
where great men have realized themselves 
through association with women apparently of 
inferior intelligence ; but the woman is the well 
of the man's success. There are certain condi- 
tions necessary for the manifestation of man- 
hood ; these conditions women supply. And as 
for superiority : was Cicero the greater for hav- 
ing saved Rome, or Romulus the greater for 
having founded it ? Is the woman greater for 
supplying the human needs and the subcon- 
scious relationship which make a man, or is the 
man greater because of the development ? 

One cannot develop without the other. Be- 
hind both is that complex psychic and spiritual 
connection which makes them One. They are 
radiations of this Onehood. The Vedas teach 
that "the real man and the real woman" are 
176 



The Spirit of Womanhood 

bound to each other and related by eternity. 
One develops through the other. 

Woman is the seed and the soil ; man the blos- 
som and fruit. Woman is negative, but she ma- 
terializes the soul of man — the positive. The 
same process holds on each plane. Woman is 
the goddess of birth. A great mind cannot fully 
manifest unless the " indescribable somethings" 
of personal need are rendered. These "some- 
things" the woman nature gives. It is like the 
cat and the stove. The man nature is psychially 
adjusted in association with woman nature. 

This, however, implies deep and many truths. 
Is woman the superior or the inferior; the 
dominating or the subject principle? In the 
world of practical experience, in this material 
world, she is the subject — man the power and 
ruler. But as a man develops he absorbs the 
woman nature. Sensitiveness, refinement and 
delicacy of thought, speech, movement and gen- 
eral deportment characterize the truly devel- 
oped man. He is the offspring of the Feminine, 
alike in spirit and expression. 

Yet even in the practical world of money and 
power, we find the under-current of woman. 
Men control affairs and women control men. 
177 



The Spirit of Womanhood 

The deep power, exercised through feminine in- 
fluence, cannot he too highly estimated. Men 
depend upon the woman nature for their spirit 
of battle with the world. From the sympathy 
of the woman the courage of the man arises. 

And it is always the one woman. Every 
great man whom history cites had this one 
woman ; she is not the woman of desire, but the 
woman of the spirit. True, there may have 
been "other women," but they were the play- 
things of a passing passion. Louis the Four- 
teenth had his Madame de la Valliere whose 
name he spoke on his death-bed. She it was 
who truly exercised the lasting influence on this 
spirited, disconnected character. ISTapoleon 
had his Josephine. Though he discarded her 
she was the making of his masterful manli- 
ness and, until she met him, she was accused 
of coquettishness. 

When a man develops, apparently without 
the sympathy and encouragement of a woman, 
he is nevertheless led on by the Eternal Femi- 
nine. The priests of religions are moved by the 
Feminine Spirit of Divine Love of which Goe- 
the spoke. Their lives are lives of feeling and 
suasion. 

178 



The Spirit of "Womanhood 

The heart of a woman is a man's standing 
ground. Though hit hard in the conflict with 
life, a man is soothed, comforted and encour- 
aged through the "nameless something" of 
"the" woman. 

The Middle Ages have passed. The sensual, 
soulless attitude of Mohammedanism, too, will 
pass. The savage has passed with his physical 
dominion over woman. Though great numbers 
are still savage in spirit and desire, the race 
is becoming more lucid in its conception of 
woman's position. The age of true womanhood, 
unaggressive, uplifting and non-sensuous is at 
hand. The woman is the mother nature. The 
woman clings, cherishes, depends. In her weak- 
ness lies her greatest strength. The love of a 
woman for a man is misconceived. It may 
have a physical basis. All manifestation has 
physical counterparts. But the spirit of un- 
dying affection has not origin in the putrescence 
of flesh. And the love that loses its ideal is the 
love that perishes, the love that begins to die 
from birth. 

The moulding of ideals is the aim of nature. 
In this moulding she has physical tools. But 
the Master-Artist discards the tools when the 
179 



The Spirit of Womanhood 

ideal is imaged on the canvas of life. Men are 
the creatures of the moment of life. Women 
are the creatures of impulse. They live to in- 
fluence. 

True love expresses itself in steadfastness 
and in principle. It is rooted in the ground of 
moral truth. The eyes of the mind are dimmed 
with passion — and from them, in time, the tears 
of sorrow will flow. Who will throw his treas- 
ure to the swine ? Who will cast a t>oul to the 
winds? Who will dare soil a white image of 
God ? Who will desecrate the precious gift of 
a true love ? The swine and the winds are the 
untamed physical desires which arouse the slum- 
bering beast within. 

The whips of the law and the whips of social 
development have penned the swine, but desire 
loosens the lock. Therefore, a man should hesi- 
tate and a woman consider ere the deepest words 
have passed between them, for the mind must 
be right and the soul must desire more than a 
handful of dust or a bag of bones. Purblinded 
by the incarnate weakness of body, the soul 
reaches out for satisfaction of sense, but it finds 
only husks. 

One may compare the influence from a matK- 
180 



The Spirit of Womanhood 

ematical point of view. Before two can exist, 
one must be, and the continued increase is the 
result of birth from the preceding figure. The 
largest sum depends on the apparently lesser; 
the woman on the man. The sum of creation 
depends on the Mother-Principle. The Mother- 
Principle is the unit. It is the primeval sub- 
stance. The spirit of universal intelligence 
breathed, and substance manifested in form. 

Thus it is in the microcosm — a replica of the 
macrocosm. The spirit of the man is ambitious ; 
it breathes over the nature of the woman in love 
and from this springs not only the child of ma- 
terial birth, but a child of the mind, manifest- 
ing in the deeds and virtues of both and in their 
development. 

Buddha had his Yosadhara and Krishna his 
Raddha. The woman is the vehicle for spirit- 
ual development and transmission. She gives 
birth to principle as well as to form. In the 
field of intellectual activity, men predominate; 
but intuitionally the woman stands in the fore- 
ground. The advantages are common and inter- 
related. Through the development of one the 
other is equally assisted. The feminine is the 
mother of mind. The Greeks had their Pallas 
181 



Tlie Spirit of AYomanhood 

Athene. The feminine is the Mother of Spirit. 
Sri Kamakrishna had his Sarada-devi. 

The supreme lesson embodied is the spirit of 
unselfishness manifesting on the part of the 
man to the woman and on the part of the 
woman to the man. No rivalry should exist, 
for it leads to contention and misunderstanding. 
Such is the trouble in the social consternation 
concerning the increase of assertiveness and of 
independence of women in the field hitherto oc- 
cupied solely by men. 

Eeason as we may, the inevitableness of the 
future occurrence outweighs the arguments pro 
and con. 

That woman has taken her strong position in 
the world of affairs practical proves that it is 
a matter of necessity and general development 
that she does. Nature is sponsor for some of 
our ideals, but many of them she discards. And, 
as for social custom and usage, she fails to con- 
sider human reasons. She upsets moral and 
social laws and introduces the radically new 
and wipes out the principles of stagnation. It 
is the law of the survival of the fittest. Nor 
need man think that the oncoming of woman 
into the area of business and politics will tend 
182 



The Spirit of Womanhood 

to make women masculine. We may urge and 
protest, but the urge of nature is the upward 
urge. 

Woman must become as self-dependent as 
man. Upon the spirit of independence, particu- 
larly material independence, are the noblest 
virtues and the truest associations formed. In- 
dependence works for uprighteousness and for 
sincerity of ideals and of ideas. Dependence 
encourages the vices of deception and abject- 
ness with their train of evil. 

Freedom of spirit ! It is that for which men 
have striven and for which they have died. 
They have gained freedom politically and re- 
ligiously. They now cry for economic freedom. 
And what they ask for themselves they must 
allow for womankind, for a difference in sex 
and in temperament is not a difference in soul 
and in spirit. 

When men and women are individually free 
to follow the dictates of the higher conscience 
within them, their souls and expression will 
develop in the fulness. 



183 



NIGHT AND KESUKKECTION. 

The guest of Night, robed in sable garments, 
smiles at forlorn Happiness, for the Night is 
larger than the Day. 

But when the Sun God shines, Happiness 
and Day resume their accustomed hey-day. 

Clouds pall the light of the Sun. And with- 
in the soul there are clouds often blacker than 
night and more portentuous than the black 
cloud of Elijah's prayer. 

The soul is sufficiently elastic so that it may 
even embrace hell itself. Woe be to the man so 
distressed, for the hell of the mind is the de- 
struction of both body and soul. 

And the torch of God's greatest messengers 
can but feebly illumine the newer path rising 
out of hell into normal vistas and into the day- 
light and joy of life renewed. 

Aquarius, bearer and spirit of water, is the 
symbol of the mental metamorphosis, for the 
longest torture and the greatest torment pass 
as do all things. 

184 



Xight and Resurrection 

"De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine." Out 
of the depths I have cried unto Thee, Lord. 

The fires of divine compassion consume the 
forms of miseries that deaden the soul burd- 
ened with which it is as a lifeless bit of clay. 

Phoenix-like, the soul rises from its depres- 
sion of death into the life and into the harmony 
of the resurrecting Self. 

The low notes of death and the mortal terror 
of the lost, the lost who neither see happiness 
ncr hear the divine chorus of life, reach the ear3 
of God. 

The tears of the distressed are His tears; 
their despair His despair ; their misery, Hi3 
misery. 

But His Almightiness breathes away the tor- 
ture and the terror and breathes in the sweet, 
ineffable calm and resignation which are the 
lingering shadows before the dawn of the resur- 
rection of the soul. 

''When it is darkest the light of God and His 
grace begin to shine;" so says the ancient 
proverb. 



185 



VIBEATIOK 

Vibration is composed of the psychic thread 
of accordance and discordance. They are 
formed of thought substance and moved by 
thought power. They are not thought, but a 
creation of thought, for we find that even stones 
and vegetable and animal properties radiate vi- 
bration. But they are mostly physical. The 
physical vibration is the respectively individual- 
ized bit of universal intelligence, instinctively 
or chemically involved in the minor orders of 
life, later evolving. As men are almost exclu- 
sively imbued with the physical, they are more 
sensitive to coarser and to physical than to 
rarer and spiritual vibrations. 

This universe is a matter of thought. We 
make distinctions that only appear because of 
our limitations of sense. Think for a moment 
of the ultimate elements of matter, how rare, 
how super-physical. The finest and purest and 
final elements of matter are elements of mind. 
In this men find the existence of omnipresent 
intelligence, even in the smallest atom of atoms. 
186 



Vibration 

The body is a composite of thought. No or- 
ganic activity can occur through chance. Or- 
ganic activity is the fulfilment of the mandates 
of law, and where there is law there is intelli- 
gence, for one presupposes the other. 

If you should drift to a desert island in your 
voyage across unknown seas and, landing, 
should find a geometrical figure on the sands 
would you not immediately suspect the presence 
of an intelligent being ? 

Then, applied to the pre-historic or pre- 
human ages of evolution, the facts of geometri- 
cal progression would necessitate Intelligence, 
would it not ? We should remember what Plato 
called God or the Creative Principle: "The 
Great Geometrician." 

The Swami Vivekananda says that the origi- 
nal mistake consists in thinking that we are 
bodies. Thus, if we could interpret the psychic 
significance of life and the spiritual nature of 
the soul, we would recollect the words of the 
Buddha : "All that we are is the result of what 
we have thought ; it is founded on our thoughts ; 
it is made up of our thoughts." 

Our progress is of and through thought. What 
we think has not only mental and spiritual but 
187 



Vibration 

equally physical values. It is in these physical 
values that vibration has origin. 

The manifestation of thought in any being 
depends on the physical medium. With human 
beings this medium is the nervous system. Now, 
the nervous system is composed of numberless 
fibres in themselves composed of rarest physical 
matter — that is visible matter. The nervous 
system represents an unimaginable aeon of de- 
velopment through lower physical forms. The 
subconscious mind is in most intimate relation- 
ship with the network of the nerves. The sub- 
conscious mind is the educated animal within 
us that pumps the blood, regulates its movement, 
performs the functions of the body, creates de- 
sire to nourish the body, and warns the being 
resident within the body of disorder by creating 
a violent disturbance — disease. 

Thought is the omni-working power. It is 
the ruler and creator of form and of the events 
occurring to form. Words cannot describe this 
intense power. Take the power of the rushing 
Niagara or of the tempestuous falls of Zambezi, 
or take the entire power represented in physical 
energy. It is nothing, positively nothing in 
comparison with the omnipotence of thought, 
188 



Vibration 

for thought, manifested in human energy, har- 
nesses all natural power; yet human energy is 
atomical in comparison with the energy of be- 
ings superior to the human race — and these exist 
multitudinously. 

Vibration is the action of thought. It is the 
arm of thought that reaches and grasps and 
crushes or builds. 

All of us are dynamos, mighty dynamos. But 
the dynamo, of itself, is nothing. Intelligence 
must work the dynamo. Then it is useful and 
its energy definitely concentrated. The mind is 
an engine of power undreamed. Fill it with 
the fuel of evil thought and intention and it 
burns itself out without any result. This burn- 
ing out is excess. The end is insanity or death, 
usually death. Xot alone a death of the body, 
but a weakening and a deadening of mind and 
soul. 

The new power system by which heat is sent 
through pipes to relatively enormous distances, 
is to my mind a fair symbol of the truth herein 
represented. The individual is a home engine 
where power is compelled through intense de- 
sire or thought. There is no limit to the radiat- 
ing influence. You cannot imagine the ultimate 
189 



Vibration 

radius of a single idea. The tremendous con- 
nection in thought circulation is the truth that 
a stray thought of relative consequence may be 
telepathically caught by some mind and in- 
flamed to unusual proportions, instituting radi- 
cal, remarkable and momentous conditions. 
That is why even the individual karma is as 
great and as deep and as wonderful and as mys- 
terious as the action of universal karma. 

From the spiritual side of life the forms and 
radiations of thought are clearly seen. Men 
see only the visible results. As an example, 
when a war is declared, all of which men are 
cognizant is one aggregation of armed men un- 
der superiors marching against and fighting 
other armed men, but to the spiritual vision 
there is a procession of thought forms and vi- 
brations, multi-colored and colored with differ- 
ent, indefinite shades of intensity that might be 
compared with a midnight sky aflame with num- 
berless and various rockets. Then there are the 
animal vibrations of aggressiveness, of fear and 
terror, of brute delight and brute cruelty. Mil- 
lions upon millions ad indeftnitum of thought 
influences rise into the astral world as the smoke 
rises from a dusky manufacturing city. Clouds 
190 



Vibration 

of thought dust of immense proportions storm 
that world and influence and disturb the natural 
adjustments of its plane. 

The astral man, encased in mortal flesh, is 
likewise affected by these thought forms. And 
the strangeness of these forms comes through 
their remarkable colors. Some are of reddish 
hue, others of red-brown, others of black, others 
of white, others of mixed colors, others of colors 
beyond and beneath normal extension of vision. 
One might compare their vibrations to electric 
charges. An orator, gifted and eloquent, sends 
forth such currents of thought that his audi- 
ence is intensively aroused, electrified, and a 
feeling permeates the place as though it were 
filled with stimulating essences. 

A vibration is to a thought what odor and 
taste are to food, or what color is to a landscape. 

Thought, like all other currents of Being, has 
the two-fold aspect of good and evil. To the 
enlightened, good is only another name for pro- 
gressive, evil another name for retrogressive — 
for the terms, respectively, are creative or de- 
structive. 

Yet thought is only matter, only combinations 
of exquisitely sensitized substance. As invisi- 
191 



Vibration 

ble electricity is to visible light, so mind is to 
matter. Both are of one underlying substance- 
making reality. That reality is the creative 
will. Schopenhauer is wrong only in empha- 
sizing his conclusion as final — for there is noth- 
ing final, not even consciousness. 

The will uses combinations of mind and com- 
binations of matter to manifest itself. Will is 
the factor that changes homogeneous mind and 
matter into heterogeneous combinations, per- 
sonal and sentient. In other words, the indi- 
vidual will has as its storehouse of expression 
undifferentiated substance and undifferentiated 
intelligence. In manifestation, the individual, 
through the mysterious activity of the will, 
changes the impersonal mind-stuff into personal 
intelligence. To do this he employs undifferen- 
tiated substance which is only the coarse expres- 
sion of thought, its outer crust. Thus arise 
thought and form. 

ISTow what is the will ? The will is the focali- 
zation of consciousness. As the stretching out 
of the arm is to the shoulder, as motion is to the 
body, so will is the motion of consciousness. 

Here we come to deep reflection. 

Unqualified consciousness is consciousness 
192 



Yibration 

without motion. This is Nirvana. Nirvana is 
the death of the will. 

So the distinction is had between the will and 
the substances of thought and form. Will is the 
going-out of consciousness. In this motion 
Avidya, ignorance, is born. For no matter how 
infinite the motion, the motion is always rela- 
tive to the potentise of consciousness which can- 
not be described even by the word infinite. 

And consciousness, what is that? From the 
lowest being to the highest, consciousness is ex- 
perience. Therefore consciousness, in one sense, 
is the product of motion. All relative conscious- 
ness is not consciousness, for it is bred and de- 
veloped in the limitless ocean of thought and 
form, and thought and form are Nescience. Un- 
qualified consciousness is not consciousness as 
men and gods comprehend it. For what is con- 
sciousness unqualified? It is Nothing. Un- 
qualified consciousness, Nirvana, God, Free- 
dom, Immortality are but incomparably human 
terms for Something Indescribable. 

Human beings speak of mind and matter as 

if these two summed the Infinite Eeality of the 

knowable and possible universe, but there are 

existences multiform beyond thought, and ex- 

193 



Vibration 

istences and combinations beyond form. Human 
being are anthropomorphic in their philosophy. 
Conditioned by space and time, they imagine 
that there can be no relative Being except as 
manifest through time and in form. 

Just as reason has its limits, so intelligent 
existence and space-occupying combinations 
have their limits. And even beyond these, Nir- 
vana is far removed. The worlds of disincar- 
nate or of unearthly beings are still conditioned 
by space and time, but that does not prevent still 
rarer, inconceivable existences who remain un- 
limited. The conception of Brahman or of God 
is as permeating as all space and time. This 
quality, however, is accreditable of many gods. 
As you are told that a Buddha, though having 
passed into Xirvana, may resume form and in- 
dividual existence proving his potential distinct- 
ness even in jSurvana, so these mighty exist- 
ences, timeless and spaceless, are personal and 
yet impersonal. From these existences the gods 
and subordinate gods spring. These are the 
archangels of the cosmos — and of what is not 
the cosmos. 

Can you conceive a god as a force ? The force 
may be his form. And that force may be omni- 
194 



Vibration 

present; as an example, gravitation. Gravita- 
tion may be a god, and that is an impersonal 
principle, yet it governs tbe motion of space- 
filling worlds. 



195 



DEATH. 

The countenance is pallid. The eyes have 
lost their lustre. Friends surround the death- 
bed. Life wavers and flutters. The senses are 
dormant. Breathing is difficult. Silence and 
terror. Fear and dissolution. The final sigh 
ending the misery that commenced with the 
sigh of the first-born. 

Passion has ceased its play. Gone are the 
fleeting interests of life. The bonds of person- 
ality are being shattered — all proving the isola- 
tion of the individual and the relativeness of all 
friends, fortune and connections. 

The death rattle. The low whisperings of 
those who surround. The soul gradually passes 
from the fulness of mortal life into the regions 
of other worlds. 

The catafalque. The death ceremony. Pall 
and the color of black. Torches and song. The 
spirit of eulogy. The anguish, when for the 
last time the face is seen, and then the body 
is carried from the place of mourning. The 
solitude of the final resting place. 
196 



Death 

The vision returns to the form and the grace 
and to the beauty of physical loveliness. But 
flesh perishes. The vision returns to the depths 
of emotion, but emotion that fades even as all 
things. Death, Mother of Life, swallows all. 
And the death of the body symbolizes the death 
of all things that have origin and expression. 

The vision returns to the colors of the life of 
industry. Ships strew the seas, and their wreck- 
age lies in the deep. The gold of commerce, as 
the iron, is subject to rust. 

The vision returns to the things held sacred, 
but the soul loosens all ties, for beyond the 
grave is neither creed, nor denomination; 
neither priest, nor dogma. 

The vision returns to the accidents and ex- 
periences of bodily life, but the world recedes 
from the vision of the dead. 

The meaning and the purpose of life shine 
forth. The dominating principle, controlling 
and connecting the threads of earthly experi- 
ence, examines the soul. The mind, naked of 
body and bodily environment, is brought before 
the tribunal of the Greater Memory. 

The Greater Memory represses and impresses. 
It tells the true ; it speaks the sincerity of pur- 
197 



Death 

pose. With sinister spirit it stands as a Me- 
phisto mocking the desire-clad actions of selfish- 
ness. 

A cold statue, replica of the earthly man, 
stands in pressing view before the disincarnate 
soul. Writhing in passion, frenzied by desires, 
tormented by the avarices of flesh, the desire- 
man, overcome with vain feeling, attempts to 
embrace the statue, but it is lifeless. The pur- 
gatory of passion consumes the astral life as the 
fever of desire killed the earthly body. It is 
the instance of Tantalus in Tartarus. 

Dark phantasms, spectres of past deeds, are 
the demons' lashing the ignorant soul. Ignor- 
ance, the arch-demon, the Lucifer crushing the 
expression and development of Spirit, sways the 
life of the spiritually blind. 

The death that distresses mortals is but a 
trifle in comparison with the death that distorts 
and deforms the body of bliss, bringing it into 
the nameless abyss of retrogression. 



198 



TKUTH. 

Is truth a changing recognition of underlying 
reality, or is it something permanent and un- 
changeable ? Can the mind of man know truth, 
or must the questions regarding the life of man 
and the problems of the universe ever remain 
questions and problems? Are we always to be 
puzzled by theories ? Is there a final and an 
authoritive answer, or is reason ever to delude 
us? 

Truth, as it relates itself to human knowl- 
edge, is never satisfying to the soul. Abstract, 
theoretical knowledge, is largely the super- 
physical bearings of the physically-nourished 
mind. 

Truth flees from us. Though men madly 
pursue, they never reach the ever advancing 
flight of that which must ever be before. As 
the senses always remain dead to the ultimate 
gratification of desires, so must reason ever pur- 
sue and vainly pursue that which is of reason 
and still beyond it. 

Truth is a known quantity, but its unknow- 
able aspects are infinite. Where then shall the 
soul of man rest ? 

199 



Truth 

In the light of "pure reason" men are always 
limited by what they know rather than by what 
they do not know. What they know is of the 
studied, tedious efforts of aeon-developed men- 
tality, counter partner of the molecular brain. 
What we know is the ballast tying to the mate- 
rial ground the soaring kite of the real and 
truth-cognizing mind. 

What we know must eventually be superseded 
by what is as yet unknown. The currents of 
thought flood and flow in different directions, 
but the currents of the sea are only its motion. 
They do not solve the "whyness" of the sea. 

What we know will witness the day when it 
is set as ignorance. A blue curtain rises and 
falls. It is the curtain of the ether which con- 
ditions the currents of thought. The rarest sub- 
stance is the physical transmittory medium. As 
the rareness and super-physicalness of life mani- 
fest in the degree, the soul is placed in more 
direction with the vibrations of thought, higher 
and more truth-bearing than ordinary. 

The flash of genius does not have origin in 
the molecular motion of the brain. It is God- 
inspired and may have reaching effects through 
generations to come. The genius of a Buddha 
200 



TrutK 

or the genius of a Caesar is the luminous ghost 
which, like a pillar of fire, shows the path that 
men follow. 

Now, the thoughts of a Caesar are not the 
product of logical training or of experimenta- 
tion or of observation, but of the science of the 
super-normal relations between a greatly de- 
veloped consciousness and its environment, great 
in possibilities and complex in quality and in 
condition. In other words, a Caesar is a god in 
soul, a god in expression. Eow was Hercules 
greater, though he was apotheosized as a na- 
tional deity? 

Truth within a Caesar manifests in a Caesar's 
deportment, life and action, in his impression 
upon life as he finds it and in his influence in 
the development of social forms and progress. 
Truth, above all, has practical signification, and 
the defeat of the Gauls was as much a manifes- 
tation of the power of truth as were the thoughts 
of Epictetus or of Zeno. 

Morality is embodied in each and every phase 
of existence, and the burning of Nero's palace 
had its place in the moral order as much as did 
the teachings of Paul. 

For truth is first objective, then subjective, 
201 



TrutK 

and it is the objective phase that should be em- 
phasized. The objective elements of truth 
manifest not in creed, but in conduct; not in 
piety, but in manliness and in womanliness. 

Morality is not set. What to one man is 
moral is a vice to a distant brother. Chastity is 
the feature of one religion — the ostracism of 
another religion. Christianity represents the 
former, Mohammedanism, the latter. 

Truth should be taken apart from religious 
denominationalism. Religion is not dogma but 
truth. And truth — that is character. The 
character of a man, when best represented, is 
his interpretation of religion and truth. 

Arminius, when he fought legions of Varus, 
was religious; when he murdered those legions 
he was also religious. Did not Sri Krishna tell 
Arjuna that he should fight — not because it is 
brutal to fight, but because it was his duty ? 

And in the pursuance of duty religion de- 
velops. What is this but Karma Yoga, India's 
great method of reaching the goal of Becoming ? 

We should do what lies before us, not because 

it pleases us, but because it is ours to do. If, 

after we have retired, a pet dog or cat should 

cry from suffering we should relieve their trou- 

202 



Truth 

ble, not because we want to remain undisturbed, 
but because it is the duty to help any being in 
distress. 

Napoleon, to the spiritual eye, was a moral 
force. To his contemporaries and to himself 
and to posterity he was a man of impulses, of 
thought, of power, of desire and of personality, 
but in the law he was alternately the scourge 
and the blessing of the race. 

The law sends a genius into the world to ac- 
complish some purpose, to resurrect or erect 
some ideal, to render more manifold the possi- 
bilities for progression, to cause and to re-cause 
the racial spirit to manifest on a more elaborate 
scale and into a field of greater direction. 

The map of Europe changed with the success- 
ful ambitions of Napoleon. Thousands of lives 
were shaped into power or from power by the 
moral force of the law embodied in his person- 
ality. 

Thus, men come and men go, but the law re- 
mains. The persistence of the racial character, 
its growth and positiveness, is the vital aim of 
the law. Personalities are but instruments. 



203 



"MOBITUEI TE SALUTANT." 

(Those Who Are About to Die Salute Thee.) 

The gilded purple panoply ; the tiers rise one 
above the other. A night, illumined with the 
torches of the amphitheatre; the roar of starv- 
ing lions ; the chatter of women, the giddy im- 
patience of children, the loud noise of Bacchan- 
tians, the stately presence of the vestals, the 
sombre faces of the senators, the august counte- 
nance of the consuls and of the emperor. 

The expanse of the arena ; the brute faces of 
the keepers ; cruel dominance of the masters of 
the circus ; the lofty disdain of Greek slaves and 
of barbarian captives. 

The striking of the gong; the vociferous ac- 
claim of the thousands. The even tread of the 
gladiators whose faces, lighted by the torches, 
seem sinister. 

The coming before the imperial dais ; the sa- 
lute, a Vale, Caesar, morituri te salutant." The 
sounding of cymbals and of trumpets. The 
crash and creaking of chained doors ; the pounc- 
204 



"Morituri Te Salutant" 

ing into the arena of stealthy, crouching beasts 
from the distant provinces of Africa and Asia. 

The struggle bitter that proved feast to the 
eyes of the holiday thousands. The pains of 
rending claws; the flash of steel; the mad roar 
of the beasts mixed with the savage, blood- 
thirsting voice of the spectators, the shout of the 
fighting gladiators and the cries and distress of 
the wounded and dying. 

This is but a glowing picture of the "Morituri 
Te Salutant'' of the present day. 

The great arena of economic life. The mock- 
ing thousands who down-thumb the loser in the 
fight. The mocking thousands, concerned in 
their own happiness, who condemn to a life 
worse than the gladiator's the man who cannot. 
The slipshod life of the gladiators of Time and 
Greed who must fight in the arena of poverty 
for a crumb. These are the victims. 

The gladiators of old fought for applause and 
ambition. But the economic captive fights from 
despair, encumbered by the thousand incon- 
veniences of poverty, and armed with nothing 
but the desperateness that makes viciousness and 
brutality storm the world. 

"Vale, Caesar, morituri te salutant." "Hail 
205 



"Morituri Te Salutant" 

world. The suicide who is about to die curses 
thee." 

And the blood of the gladiators rose in praise 
to the Spirit of Home, but the blood of the man 
crushed in the arena of Money Greed cries to 
the gods of vengeance. 



INSTINCT— INTUITION— 
INSPIRATION. 

No man, not even the greatest, can tell you 
the motives and the impulses of your mind. 
You alone know. You feel them, and all the 
sayings of a psychologist are only inferential. 
The individual doubts not his feelings. No man 
can argue you out of your feelings. In this 
sense follow them implicitly. Of course, by 
these are meant the intuitional feelings, those 
which are never wrong, never selfish. 

Feelings which impel us in certain directions 
only appear new. They appear new to the sur- 
face consciousness, to the consciousness of this 
earth-life. Such feelings are the voices of past 
experiences. Sensations make us feel at one- 
ness with the person just met, or they make us 
feel unreasonably distant — and we cannot help 
following them. With regard to a subject of 
which we have never previously heard, not even 
in a previous life, one will not feel these sensa- 
tions. With regard to other subjects, known in 
lives past, they will seem new, but they are 
readily assimilated. 

Instinct is intuition manifest in the physical ; 
207 



Instinct — Intuition — Inspiration 

it manifests in the morphological evolution of 
new forms of physical life. There is a normal 
standard of physical intuition. Degeneracy is 
its debasement. 

Higher intuition manifests in the sponta- 
neous discovery of truth, in moral discernment, 
in service, in intellectual ardor and bliss, and 
in relating consciousness to higher forms, and 
in severing its intimate physical connection. 

Inspiration and intuition are the same. In- 
spiration, however, is sometimes used to desig- 
nate the intuition coming from the highest or 
divine planes. 

Whatever comes to you is impersonal in the 
sense that once it has been imbibed, it is others ; 
that is, others receive the benefit. You become 
a teacher of the message, either in word or by 
example, for intuition is compelling. 

There are two minds. This science recog- 
nizes. The first of these is the conscious mind ; 
the other is the mind that is not the conscious. 
Now the latter may be divided into two parts, 
that which regulates the functions of the body 
and that which reaches out to the spheres of 
thought and consciousness ungrasped by the nor- 
mal mind. 



Instinct — Intuition — Inspiration 

Now, in the first of these, intuition can never 
originate ; in the second phase it may and does. 
Intuition, when it does come, is an impelling 
thought. It strikes at one point. As the intui- 
tion is flashed across normal consciousness, it is 
disseminated into various sensations and into 
various reasons that prompt the course of action. 

A man is not governed by experience. Ex- 
perience is only the habit developed from the 
first action — which is intuitional. 

All intuition arises outside of the normal con- 
sciousness. The thirst for keener satisfaction 
of passion that develops with greater social re- 
straint has developed and fixed the vices that are 
common outcasts both in public opinion and in 
law which represents public opinion, both in the 
eyes of the individual conscience and in the eyes 
of truth. Vice rises from the lower elements of 
the mind that is not conscious. Witness the 
cleverness of the insane. The cunning of the 
weazel in securing and sucking the blood of its 
prey is physically intuitive. 

To make the distinction clear: let intuition 
be considered as of psychic origin; instinct as 
of physical origin, and inspiration as spiritual. 



THE SUBJECT AND THE 
OBJECT MIND. 

The subject mind is the dupe of the object 
mind unless the latter is firmly centered. The 
experiences of the object mind have potent in- 
fluence on the character of the subject mind. 
The subject mind is the funnel through which 
the object mind comes into relation with psychic 
being; but the subject mind, unless properly 
educated, receives all impressions and does not 
distinguish, and the object mind is thereby 
puzzled. 

The object mind is strange. The subject 
mind is strange. But the object mind is less 
strange. The subject mind is the relief of the 
object mind, but the object mind peers exter- 
nally and thus is puzzled with regard to the per- 
fect inflow of truth from the subject mind. 

The object mind must be educated by reason. 
Then there is no foolishness or imposition from 
the subject mind. The subject mind is stronger 
than the object mind, disturbs the object mind 
and may even cause it to become deranged if the 
210 



The Subject and the Object Mind 

subject mind becomes disconnected by reason 
of the derangement of the subject mind through 
excesses, superstition, and so forth. 

The subject mind is like a root; the object 
mind is like a tree. The object mind, however, 
depends on the seed. The subject mind is the 
life of the object mind. The object mind is too 
much concerned with objective things. If the 
object mind ceases its persistent externalization 
and gazes inward, it beholds the all-branching 
subject mind. 

The subject mind is the all-including mind. 
First it appears as a small shoot, manifesting 
a much conditioned personality. That is the 
beginning of the evolutionary course. Then it 
develops and develops and increases the com- 
plexity and uniformity of the subject mind. 
Then the object mind becomes stouter in self- 
assertion, developing strong individuality and 
assuming greater conscious and social responsi- 
bilities. The subject mind increases and in- 
creases, more and more objectifying itself, until 
its projection loses sight of its origin and con- 
cerns itself solely with the phenomena of ob- 
jective existence. 

The ramifications of the object mind are 
211 



The Subject and the Object Mind 

founded in the basic subject mind; they are 
rooted in the foundation of that which reaches 
beyond time and is unconditioned by spaces. 
It is established in self-sufficiency by reason of 
the permanent and persistent existence of the 
subject mind. 

"When the soul commences to realize the ex- 
haustless mine of intelligence beneath the con- 
scious area, it expands into wider avenues of 
consciousness and embraces a greater and more 
extensive field of potential manifestation. 

The higher mind can be so directed as to be 
of positive assistance in the development and 
comprehension of the object mind. The object 
mind is dependent upon the subject mind for 
the better and speedier evolution of its develop- 
ing faculties. 

The object mind is assisted in this direction 
when it studiously informs itself of those truths 
that pertain to the soul, and by conforming in 
conduct to the newer and spiritual knowledge. 
Every man must discover the Path for himself, 
and this Path is chosen when the mind has at- 
tained to a certain discrimination between the 
things that work ignorance and the things that 
make for greater unfoldment of soul. 
212 



The Subject and the Object Mind 

Thus right living and right thought and 
speech are of invaluable assistance in forming 
a well-connected medium of transmission be- 
tween the subject and the object mind. 

The deepest spiritual wisdom hinges upon the 
performance of ordinary truth as it is delivered 
to man in the scriptures of the world. 



213 



PKEGNANT TKUTHS. 

Enquire! What is the motive prompting? 
[Are you sincere, or are you merely a pass-timer, 
merely a player with priceless treasures of su- 
perlative truth? Be candid. Seek, but seek 
■with the mind directed to the fulness of the 
light of Surya (the Sun-God). 

The wheels move, and with their revolving 
the cycles of time begin and end. It is an in- 
finite illusion. Open the eyes. Gaze into the 
firmament. You see the blue. In reality the 
color does not exist. It is a myth. The colors 
of existence, too, are mythical. It is all a deep 
symbolism. The glory and the light of the ex- 
ternal manifest the glory and the light of the 
immortal and imperishable soul. 

A great teacher said: "This universe is a 
myth. The truth can be summed in two words, 
Brahmasatyam, Jaganmythya." Translated, 
these words mean that Brahman or the Spirit- 
ual Principle is alone real, and that the world is 
unreal. 

We live within the omnipresent, all-time ocean 
of truth. Purify the mind. Then it becomes 
214 



Pregnant Truths 

a proper conduit for the inbreathing of God. 

These worlds, thought, relative truth, time 
and life are nominal. Even the highest truth 
succumbs to the highest consciousness — the con- 
sciousness of Brahman. Said the Kishis of old, 
and with intensity of soul did they express it: 
"All is evanescent. Wherein doth the soul find 
truth ? In the senses ? The body dies and dis- 
integrates. In the mind ? That, too, is a wheel 
of change. In the spirit of God slumbers the 
Infinite and the True. 

Yoga is the same in significance as religion. 
The Latin verb from which the Latin noun re- 
ligion is derived means to bind back or to re- 
bind. Yoga is the Sanscrit noun for union. 
Now, the final aim in life is the re-binding of 
the soul to the Dominant and the Highest. By 
yoga we reunite the soul with the Highest Bliss. 
All exists within the soul. Within the depths 
of Being reside the cognition of time, space and 
form and the spiritual principle through which 
these are manifested and developed. Useful and 
ornamental as tinsels to relative development, 
they — the things of time and form — are to be 
discarded when the spiritual Self takes His 
abode within the heart. 

215 



Pregnant Truths 



-■& 



The center is nowhere. The lines are the 
phantasms of phenomenal growth and repro- 
duction. It is, to all appearances, a meaning- 
less cycling into indefinite directions, disconnect- 
ed and indescribable, pointing nowhere, mean- 
ing nothing. A dream. Avidya. Ignorance. 
Why should the scientists and the sages differ? 
In the spiritual extreme, there is no law, nor 
truth, for laws and the changing formulas of 
truth are as relative as the things that are 
blindly impelled. If the truth is seen, law 
fails and all the forms of both truth and ignor- 
ance — for even these are degrees of nothing- 
ness. It, the everlasting Self, alone is. 

Where law is, bondage exists. Self is above 
all. This universe is in every sense a myth. 

The Truth, in its wide circle, encycling the 
cycling of existence, crushes the serpent of error. 
The soul that does not believe in the Omnipres- 
ent Truth is doomed, for blind men are led by 
the blind, and the spirit of darkness is a void 
of nothingness, and nothing are those who labor 
in darkness. 

The Spirit manifests in the Greater Memory, 
in talents and faculties, in opportunities and 
successes, in aspiration and, above all, in realiza- 
216 



Pregnant Truths 

tion. The goal is far distant, yet the star of 
hope, the light of devotion and the Sun of 
Truth make the path easy, and they brighten 
the way. 

A man is a man and walks the ways of men. 
An animal body. A mind, fortified by omni- 
potence, and a soul aflame with the fire of Di- 
vineness. The warp and the woof weave. 

Though children, we have the responsibilities 
of gods, for the influence of our lives are not 
bound by space or by time. This thought should 
lend decision to character and formulate the 
truth into every word, thought and deed. 

Of all that remains the sum is character. 
Man, remember thy deeds for they pursue thee 
even though the soul flees centuries before the 
result. 

This universe is first of all a universe of 
thought-combinations. Matter is a secondary 
consideration. It is the materialization of 
thought or of desire which is also a mode of 
thought. Thoughts that you think, thoughts 
that you voice, thoughts that you affect in con- 
duct, are bonds. These are the only heaven and 
hell— they are YOU. 



217 



THE APPEAL OF MYSTICISM. 

In the hidden depths of the background of 
conscious life is a profound sense and reverence 
of the mystical. The soul is naturally inclined 
to it. Something voices the truth that the whole- 
ness of life is not revealed in its surface expres- 
sion, but this expression changes and changes 
and will ever change, and that the underlying 
basis of these changes consists in the immutable 
support of the infinitely possible that contin- 
ually manifests itself in the new and the more 
evolved. 

Men are miserably bound by the senses. They 
cannot reach out beyond an extremely limited 
boundary of feeling and sense observation. Be- 
yond the experiences of the senses and beyond 
their objects is the Infinitely Beyond. That 
Infinitely Beyond appeals to us through the 
mystical sense. 

To cultivate the mystical sense we must en- 
deavor to appreciate the truth that permeates all 
space and all time, and realize in so far as it 
is possible, that truth in our daily conduct and 
218 



The Appeal of Mysticism 

impress it on our daily environment. That de- 
velops a super-sensuous vision of truth and 
makes the soul cognizant of the realities be- 
neath and beyond the surface appearance of 
things. 

The Infinitely Beyond is the Absolute Exist- 
ence including temporal existence. That Abso- 
lute Existence has been variously named ; above 
all it has been called God. The ideal to be 
translated into conscious value is that this Ab- 
solute Existence is one and identical with its 
finite manifestations, one and identical with 
every soul from the lemental and atomic to the 
human and the super-human. 

Eealizing this, Life itself is realized. 



219 



KARMA RELATIONS. 

Karma relations are indeed few. A Karma 
relation is one primevally bound to another, 
having an identity of spiritual essence, with 
the same evolutionary drift and with the same 
ultimate destiny of finding each other when the 
mind of one has strayed into some devious path. 
Just as a planet is intimately related to its des- 
tiny, so a Karma relation is bound to its mate. 
But, in the very final sense, there is but one 
Karma relation, the spiritual affinity. These 
find their ultimate union in the realization of 
a same and, to them, supreme ideal. 

Others are Karma relations, but only relative- 
ly so because they come but to go and to come 
again and to go until, at length, the develop- 
ment of one overlaps the development of the 
other, and then their relations and sympathy 
end. By sympathy, emotional sympathy is not 
meant, but the sympathy of necessity. 

Those who come into our lives we may never 
wish to have come again. Fate changes the 
mind's relations. Where first pleasure and sen- 
220 



Karma Relations 

timent were, there later comes a loosening of all 
ties. When a woman or a man are through with 
their loves, they mock them. Wide breaches of 
feeling distance them. When one has outgrown 
surroundings, the people who know him fail to 
understand. They manifest on different planes 
of thought and expression. Socrates was widely 
separated from Xanthippe. And a marriage of 
the body or a union through physical or mental 
proximity is not Karmic or spiritual in the 
absolute sense. As one changes his clothes with 
the fashions, so one changes his friends and re- 
lations with the changing fashions and needs of 
the mind. Behold life! Just as one may put 
a garment off for several days or for a season, 
and then puts it on when the time demands it, 
so the individual Self changes its friends and 
relations; but sometimes it renews experiences 
of past seasons. And as sometimes men wear 
certain clothes because they have none other, so 
often souls come together through necessity, and 
as sometimes men complain of their poverty, so 
sometimes they complain of their friends and 
relations. 

When the goal is reached, then is there Kai- 
valya, isolation. All Karma having passed, all 
221 



Karma Kelations 

relative conditions and connections also pass. 
In this sense every soul stands isolated, for the 
Spirit is One, not many, nay, not even two. 

You may compare human relations in this 
way: when two persons are absorbed by one 
ideal, it is the ideal which lives and the person- 
alities are mythical. There are loves that en- 
dure for a time and then break upon the shores 
of times. When overcome with the passing feel- 
ing of passion, men and women swear away 
their souls, and later they laugh. But when 
"She" comes then is there true love. So all 
friends and relations are Karmic in the degree, 
sometimes the degree being intense and endur- 
ing from lives to lives, but there is but one real 
bride to each lover, but one real mate to each 
soul. 

In the case where a man and a woman sepa- 
rate, the man is not a Dante, nor the woman a 
Beatrice; that is, the woman does not compose 
the man's highest ideal, nor is the man a Dante 
in depth or rareness of feeling. 



222 



SOME THOUGHTS ON AN 
UNDERSTANDING OF LIFE. 

Life is not a matter of intellectual perception, 
but of conscious experience. There are hun- 
dred-fold occasions when we cannot express feel- 
ing in intellectual terms, owing to the poverty 
of language and for the fact that educated feel- 
ing transcends reason. It is the refinement of 
feeling rather than the perfection of the things 
of thought to which life tends. Feeling is the 
determining and actual medium in all percep- 
tion. Understanding and sympathy between 
friends is emotional rather than rational. It 
is founded on educated sensibilities rather than 
on any critical analysis of character. One can 
never explain feeling, yet he is more certain of 
what he feels than of what he thinks. Feeling 
is a higher expression of consciousness. Phil- 
osophers say that consciousness can be extended 
beyond ordinary rational perception. Reason 
is also an expression of consciousness, but it is 
slow and ponderous in comparison with the 
higher intuitions of feeling. 
223 



Some Thoughts on an Understanding of Life 

Feeling is instantaneous, direct, invariably 
true and infallible. Reason infers, but what we 
feel is conditioned by positive experience. It 
is a spontaneous discernment of the object or 
quality recognized. Feeling acts in a higher de- 
gree on the mental plane. Regularly it acts on 
the plane of desire, but when desire is elevated 
beyond the physical and selfishly emotional, 
when it rises to the mental and spiritual planes, 
then feeling is the best and most immediate 
avenue for personal progression. Feeling, 
when controlled, is the easiest and most direct 
of the paths that lead the personal to the feet 
of the super-personal Self. 

A great spiritual teacher of the century past 
said that the present age was the time and the 
opportunity for the unfoldment of the spirit 
through the emotions. Feeling, properly di- 
rected, is the highest possible manifestation of 
the soul, for then it is divine. Feeling and the 
value of feeling are found in the method of 
direction. Fire may burn a child, but with fire 
one can also cook food. Similarly with feeling. 
Feeling may degrade or upbuild, as the currents 
of its direction are improperly or properly chan- 
nelled. Selfishness, for example, causes many 
224 



Some Thoughts on an Understanding of Life 

to seek happiness at the expense of the comfort 
and welfare of others, but selfishness may 
cause the mother to sacrifice herself for her 
child and prompt the sinner to abandon his 
ways because such abandonment would serve his 
very highest interests. 

In the circumstances of individual life it is 
wise to strengthen the idea that the true under- 
standing of life is ever associated with pain. 
It requires the greatest moral courage to take 
this position. Yet, when one pauses to reflect 
on the central truths and the evolutionary facts 
of his moral and mental development, he comes 
to an intimate appreciation of the uses of strug- 
gle and pain. Painful experiences mould the 
personality into a nobler cast. The dross of 
superficiality is removed and the individual 
possesses the unalloyed ore of personal growth. 

Pain is something from which we flee in ter- 
ror, yet it relentlessly pursues us until the par- 
ticular lesson it wishes to instil is learned at 
the particular time and under the necessary 
environment. The existence of the law of com- 
pensation manifests in its divinely exact jus- 
tice. We must accept as inevitable and impera- 
tive the facts of life as we come into relation 
225 



Some Thoughts on an Understanding of Life 

with them, neither falsely enthusing when they 
flatter us, nor becoming unreasonably despond- 
ent when they are against us. The spirit may 
live in conformity with nature as it obeys nat- 
ural laws, and natural laws include spiritual 
laws. Truth manifests irrespective of person- 
ality, and, in this sense, actualizes its decrees 
in the affairs of men with unequivocal impar- 
tiality. And if a man complains of the drift of 
his fortunes he is as unjust to himself as if he 
should deny rational truth, though it stand 
patent and irrefutable. 

Our environment and the innumerable cir- 
cumstances and accidents of our lives already 
exist in the foreshadowings of the subconscious 
personality which, like a magnet, draws those 
facts, both mental and physical, to itself that 
are congenial to its individual nature. Thus, in 
determining the apparent injustice of any fea- 
ture or phase of personal life, the individual 
must penetrate the folds of sophism and dis- 
cover the outward fact as related to and born of 
inner selfishness. 

The sage, giving an accidental importance to 
the ephemeral incidents of bodily life, remem- 
bers the persistence of character and so devotes 
226 



Some Thoughts on an Understanding of Life 

himself in all experiences that from them he 
may reap a larger place in the scale of being. 
The end and purpose of this bodily life is to 
undergo uneven experiences that from the un- 
evenness of pleasure and pain the happy state 
of spiritual equilibrium may be had. The mo- 
tive principle of the spiritual ideal is the de- 
velopment of high mental and emotional atti- 
tudes that may work for the ultimate manifes- 
tation of the divinity within the depths of man- 
hood and womanhood. The integration of a 
spiritual consciousness is attained through the 
disintegration of a lower mental and emotional 
consciousness. In other words, the world of the 
senses must give way to the world of mental 
realities and spiritual truth. The evanescent 
pleasures of passion and desire must recede be- 
fore the oncoming of the joys of the mind and 
the bliss of the spirit. 

This is an age of blindest materialism when 
the forces of the senses build high the fabric of 
social convenience and material advancement. 
But the climax has been reached in ages pre- 
vious to this. The havoc of rawer, cruder and 
barbarous influences annihilated the social 
status of ancient Eome. So, in the due course 
227 



Some Thoughts on an Understanding of Life 

of the conflict between the retrogressive and the 
progressive units of evolution, the time will 
come when the highest levels of present social 
development must lower before the tempestuous 
onrush of more vital and more active and evo- 
lutionary things to come and to be realized in 
the future. Experiences change. The soul 
alone persists. 

Life is something far-reaching in opportu- 
nity. It admits of the widest variations of 
good and of evil. No matter how deep the 
abyss into which a soul may have fallen, the 
ascent can be made, and, in very fact, must be 
made, for the urge impels and, if its more gentle 
whisperings are not heeded, it violently compels. 
It is good to see the realities of life in their 
truest and existing proportions. We must be- 
come the spectator of the things that affect us, 
and not confusedly identify ourselves with 
them. We must get out of the perspective, so 
that we can get a fair and exact view of the 
spiritual background of our life and impartially 
judge its shifting scenes. Then the day of life 
is unclouded, for, seeing things in their reality, 
we are not overcome by their surface presenta- 
tion. There is a moral manifestation of truth 
228 



Some Thoughts on an Understanding of Life 

in our lives and it rises or falls in the degree. 

Disciplining the mind, the feelings and the 
will so that they are more convincing and truth- 
bearing we come to the practical relations of the 
spiritual life which all are capable of express- 
ing if their ideals are right and if their pur- 
poses are firm. That spiritual life is the real 
life. It is that real life which we must pro- 
nounce, for that is permanent. It is the truth. 
It disseminates goodness and strength and virtu- 
ous desire. It instils the longing to expand into 
the greater orders of life, to overcome the nar- 
rowness and the falseness and the nothingness of 
the life prompted by the material desire to ac- 
quire and to gain and to continue to acquire 
and to gain. The saddest fact in the life of 
many an individual is his utter lack of discrimi- 
nation between the things that develop the real- 
ity of the soul and the things that cloud that 
reality. 

An understanding of life is best had through 
a perfect Self consciousness, a consciousness 
that reaches and discovers something immortal 
beyond this shifting mortality, a permanent ego 
beyond this changing personality, an eternal and 
everlasting Self supporting and encouraging the 
229 



Some Thoughts on an Understanding of Life 

spiritual aspirations of this lower self. This 
consciousness is gained through persistently de- 
siring it, through earnestly praying for the light 
that penetrates the densities of material igno- 
rance and floods the soul with the spiritual 
vision that enables it to grasp facts and verities 
deeper and truer and more real than the phe- 
nomena of fleeting mortal existence. 



THE END 



230 



Psychic Control 

Through Self 

Knowledge 

By WALTER WINSTON KENILWORTH 

An elaborate and exhaustive work upon the Phil- 
osophy of Being, written for those who 
would gain control of their 
psychic powers. 

8*00. Cloth, $2,00, postpaid* 



\u 



Address, 

R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 

18 EAST 17th STREET, NEW YORK 



PSYCHIC CONTROL 

"A book of three hundred and forty pages of 
living truths." — Universal Republic. 

"A book that should interest a large class of 
readers who like research into the subtler forces 
of nature and the abtruse working mind and 
spirit." — Banner, Nashville, Tenn. 

"The author emphasises the need of a practical 
creed that shall make the soul conscious of real- 
ities which have heretofore been believed." — The 
Bookman. 

"The depths of the soul are touched by the 
apostleship of a newer philosophy." — The Times, 
Louisville, Ky. 

"The knowledge of what constitutes the im- 
mortal self of each animate and inanimate being 
is set forth." — Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

"Here we have a thoughtful elaboration of the 
principles generally taught in what we recognize 
as the new school of Philosophy." — The Public. 

"In his descriptive writings the author has 
struck the spiritual chord of the world's deepest 
philosophies" — Richard G. Badger, Esq., in Poet 
Lore. 

"As water purifies the physical instrument of 
the soul, so the mind is purified by adherence to 
the tenets of the individual conscience." — The 
Club Fellow. 

"This is a study of the mental and spiritual 
control through self-knowledge, and as such a con- 
tribution to the literature of New Thought." 
Democrat, Little Rock, Ark. 

"The knowledge of what constitutes the im- 
mortal soul of each animate and inanimate being 
is set forth in a way that leaves an indelible im- 
pression upon the mind.' — The Despatch, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

"Those who have a fancy for the occult will 
be interested in 'Psychic Control Through Self 
Knowledge.'" Sunday States, New Orleans, La, 



PSYCHIC CONTROL 

"An earnest attempt to present a system of 
thought and a method for the development of the 
spiritual faculties." — Inter-Ocean, Chicago, 111. 

"Mr. Kenilworth's work is fertile in thought- 
fulness of the subjects treated, and cannot fail 
of being highly commended by the constantly- 
increasing investigators of the psychic philosophy." 
Courier, Boston, Mass. 

"Walter Winston Kenilworth emphasises the 
need of a practical creed and system of self- 
Vzn.0Y?\zA%z." Plain-Dealer, Cleveland O. 

One of the most important of recent contri- 
butions to the metaphysical literature of the New 
Thought, and emphasizes the need of a practical 
creed founded on a better understanding of the 
spiritual self." — Press, Philadelphia, Pa. 

"It is doubtless a very fine thing; like a star, 
the light of which has not yet reached the earth, 
the multitude cannot appreciate it." — News and 
Courier, Charleston, S. C. 

"This book is a tribute to the spirit of the 
age, a spirit of better values, higher sympathies, 
a deeper recognition of death and a more ex- 
tensive spiritual perspective." — American, Balti- 
more. 

"The great principal which has been emphasized 
is that morality is the medium through which the 
deepest psychic and spiritual consciousness is 
obtained." — Age-Herald, Birmingham, Ala. 

"The spiritual consciousness which corresponds 
with spiritual knowledge is shown to be intimately 
identified with a moral consciousness." — Tribune, 
Minneapolis, Minn. 

"Psychic Control Through Self-Knowledge, 
emphasizes the need of a practical creed and 
system of self-knowledge." — Plain-Dealer, Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

"New religions, new systems of thought, new 
systems of philosophy are turning the tide of 
spiritual unrest from the orthordoxy of past 
ages. The profound discoveries of modern sci- 
ence are forming into a new basis. Then he 



PSYCHIC CONTROL 

strikes the keynote of his work — Faith is giving 
way to knowledge." — The Herald, New York. 

'The author of this book writes the lines of 
what is called 'new philosophy/ He takes a broad 
view of the problems of life and shows the in- 
timate connection between the spiritual connection 
which corresponds with spiritual knowledge and 
a moral consciousness. The book is interesting 
and instructive." — Metaphysical Magazine. 

'The object is to show that realization of the 
spirit within is the goal of spiritual effort, psychic 
control is the direct method of approach and mor- 
ality is the medium through which the deepest 
psychic and a spiritual consciousness is evolved." 
Chronicle, San Francisco. 

"How we can gain psychic control through self- 
knowledge is the theme here exploited. Mr. Ken- 
ilworth argues that self-knowledge must be estab- 
lished in consciousness. Man has in himself a 
reservoir of latent energy upon which he is at 
liberty to draw, but which he puts to slight ac- 
count. J Mr. Kenilworth would help man to it's 
use." — Detroit Free Press. 

"This is a psychological and philosophical study. 
The author departs from the orthodox conceptions 
of religion and the soul's relation to God. If 
you are orthodox and wish so to remain, let the 
volume alone. If you believe faith is giving away 
to knowledge, here's a book you want." — News, 
Galveston, Texas. 

"The author has taken Solon's dictum 'Know 
Thyself, as his theme, but has handled it in a 
manner which would have been impossible in the 
days of the Greek philosophers. — It is a call to in- 
dividualism as against the modern socialistic 
spirit." — Book News Monthly. 

'The book is one of an increasing number of 
works showing the tendency to break away from 
the old established forms of theology, to teach 
mankind to become conscious of his soul and to 
take issue with the old orthodox assertion 'be- 
lieve and ye shall be saved."— American, New 
York. 



PSYCHIC CONTROL 

"The purpose of this excellent book is not to 
teach control of others, but control of self; and 
it deals with principles rather than methods. The 
value cf this book is far beyond that of mere 'psy- 
chic' uses of the mind. 'The Birthright of the 
Soul' is a chapter that well represents the refresh- 
ing energy of thought which constitutes the help- 
ful philosophy of this book." — Bible Review. 

"There is so much fakery and quackery being 
laid before ignorant and unsuspecting readers 
these days under the titles of 'psychic' this and 
'psychic' that, that the very name of this book 
gives rise to dark suspicions in the mind of the 
reader. And yet there is no quackery evident in 
this volume. It is apparently the work of an 
earnest and sincere man." — Telegraph, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

"He has made an extremely readable book, in 
which the influence both of theosophy and of 
new thought is visible." — Globe, Boston Mass. 

"This volume is the result of deep research, 
much study, an indefinite amount of thought, 
coupled with a primary understanding of the sub- 
ject acquired through years of labor. It is above 
else a book for the thinker, a volume that must 
be studied and analyzed before it's true worth be- 
comes manifest." — The Reporter, Waterloo, Iowa. 

"A very lucid exposition of the theory of evo- 
lution, of spiritual truths, and the attainment of 
the higher self. The author sees clearly the 
need of the individual for a practical creed and a 
more definite knowledge of soul forces. It is a 
plea for the consciousness of soul and a spiritual 
understanding of self. It is a^well written and 
dear analysis of a subject that is steadily gaining 
in interest." — Miscellaneous. 

"A philosophical work of great value, teaching 
how to become conscious of one's soul, and by 
cultivating morality and things spiritual, to de- 
velope all the highest capablities of self. Gently 
but firmly he leads the reader up the steps of 
self-knowledge. To the mind who strives to 
understand, there first comes inspiration, anxi then, 



PSYCHIC CONTROL 

an all pervading peace. No one should attempt 
to study more than one chapter at a sitting, for 
the pages are literally packed with meaning, which 
is best assimilated by degrees. The word paint- 
ing is rarely beautiful." — The Times-Union, Al- 
bany, N. Y. 

"Table-turning, thought reading, crystal gazing, 
clairvoyance, ghost-raising and such like diver- 
sions are at present so much in favor with the 
frivolous that it may be proper to offer a word 
of warning about Mr. Walter Winston Kenil- 
worth's book, Psychic Control Through Self- 
Knowledge, and those who hope to find any in- 
formation here about the transference of thoughts 
or the shifting of furniture will be grievously dis- 
appointed. By psychic control Mr. Kenilworth 
means the control of desires with the amelioration 
of conduct and the refinement of physical and 
mental vibration." — The Evening Sun, New York. 

"This is a very interesting, instructive and up- 
lifting work, written in the author's well known 
style. All will find some new truth in this book, 
and there are none but whom will receive in- 
struction and benefit." — Voice of the Magi. 

"In the author's power to perceive relations, to 
^rasp the occult truth embodied in an object or a 
phenomenon, to recognize truths pertaining to the 
unseen realm and to the inner life, and to lay the 
same before others with clearness, originality and 
convincing power, one is continually reminded of 
Emerson. One closes it marveling at the heights 
which a soul has reached that can put forth a 
work like this."— L. Frances Estes in The Oc- 
cident. 



MAR 29 1911 



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